German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)
Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung
Globale Umweltveränderungen
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Wissenschaftlicher Beirat des Bundesregierung
Globale Umweltveränderungen (WBGU) Reichpietschufer 60-62 (8th Etage) D-10785 Berlin Tel. +49 30 263 94 80 Fax +49 30 263 94 850 wbgu@wbgu.de www.wbgu.de |
Establishment and Mission
Council Members and Staff Members
Current and Future Activities
Present Priority Fields
- Flagship Report "Bioenergy and Sustainable Land Use" (working title): Public Release and submission to the German Federal Government (expected by December 2008).
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Background and Mission
Establishment
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) was set up by the Federal Government of Germany in 1992 by means of a Decree that was modified on 25 October 2000 . The WBGU was established as an independent body with a Secretariat in Berlin. In 2004 the fourth nomination period started (1 November 2004 to 31 October 2008). The Council reports directly to the Federal Government and is supported administratively alternately, on a two-yearly basis, by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety (BMU). An Inter-Ministerial Working Group (IMA) comprising members from all other ministries and the Federal Chancellery provides further support to the Council in its work.
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Mission
The WBGU research focuses on critical changes in the Earth System. Its aim is to identify the causes of, and interactions between global problems in the field of environment and development, to identify ways to mitigate or avoid these problems, and to predict future trends. Acting on this knowledge is the responsibility of policymakers.
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Council Members
The WBGU has nine Council Members, which are researchers or other experts from different backgrounds. The term started on 1 November 2004 and it will end on 31 October 2008.
| Chair Prof. Dr. Renate Schubert |
Professor for Economics at the Swiss Federal Institute for
Technology |
| Vice-Chairman Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim (John) Schellnhuber |
CBE Research Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research in Norwich (UK) |
| Members Prof. Dr. Nina Buchmann |
Professor of Grassland Science, Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zurich (Switzerland) |
| Prof. Dr. Astrid Epiney |
Professor for International Law, European Law and Swiss
Public Law |
| Dr. Rainer Grießhammer |
Member of the Management Board of the Institute of Applied
Ecology, Freiburg |
| Dr. Margareta Kulessa |
Department of Economics and European Economic Politics at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences |
| Dr. Dirk Messner, |
Director of the German Development Institute, Bonn |
| Prof. Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf |
Professor of Physics of the Oceans, Potsdam University |
| Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schmid |
President of the Institute for Solar Energy Technology Professor at the University of Kassel |
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Staff Members
The work of the Council is supported by a Secretariat in Berlin. The WBGU has a secretariat with around ten staff, including seven scientists. It provides scientific and logistic support to the Council Members and serves as the direct contact address for the public and the press. Dr. Meinhard Schulz-Baldes is the Secretary General, he will retire in October 2008.
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Work Style
Tasks of the Council
The following tasks have been assigned to the Council:
- analyse global
environment and development problems and report on these,
- review and evaluate
national and international research in the field of global change,
- provide early warning of
new issue areas,
- identify gaps in research
and to initiate new research,
- monitor and assess
national and international policies for the achievement of sustainable
development,
- elaborate recommendations
for action and research and
- raise public awareness and heighten the media profile of global change issues.
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Substructure and Working Groups
The working groups of the Council are set up on an ad hoc basis. At the moment, there are no special working groups.
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Council Meetings
The Council meets once a month for two days and every two years it holds a full week meeting. The meeting dates for 2008 are: May 19-22 (full week meeting), June 19-20, July 3-4, August 28-29, September 25-26, October 30-31.
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Type of Advice
The Council submits regularly reports to the Federal Government containing recommendations for research and further action to combat global problems in the field of environment and development (until 1999 once a year, since 2000 on a two years basis). The Council further issues special reports in the context of particular events, such as the climate conferences in Berlin (1995) or Kyoto (1997).The Council also issues policy papers that are short, policy-oriented statements on burning issues of global change.
The Council also keeps close contact to Parliamentarian groups (e.g. on environment) and Enquete-Commissions of the German Bundestag. At the international level the Council is represented in several official German delegations of the UNCED follow-up, e.g. the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Council members are also involved in international research bodies such as the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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Activities in the EEAC Network
The WBGU joined EEAC in 1999.
It is an observer to the Working Groups Energy, Governance and Sustainable Development.
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List of Selected Publications
You can search for the full list of policy advice in our Search Engine which also includes the titles in English of publications available in original language only.
Main Reports
- World in Transition: Climate Change as a Security Risk, (June 2007);
- World in Transition: Fighting Poverty through Environmental Policy, ( 2004);
- World in Transition: Towards Sustainable Energy Systems, (2003);
- World in Transition: New Structures for Global Environmental Policy, (2000);
- World in Transition: Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Biosphere, (2001);
- World in Transition: Strategies for Managing Global Environmental Risks, (2000);
- World in Transition: Ways Towards Sustainable Management of Freshwater Resources, (1998);
- World in Transition: The Research Challenge, (1997);
- World in Transition: Ways Towards Global Environmental Solutions, (1995);
- World in Transition: The Threat to Soils, (1994);
- World in Transition: Basic Structure of Global People-Environment Interactions, (1993).
Special Reports
- The Future Oceans – Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour, (2006)
- Climate Protection Strategies for the 21st Century: Kyoto and beyond, (2003);
- Charging the Use of Global Commons, (2002);
- World in Transition: Environment and Ethics, (1999);
- The Accounting of Biological Sinks and Sources Under the Kyoto Protocol - A Step Forwards Or Backwards For Global Environmental Protection?, (1998);
- Targets for Climate Protection. A Study for the Third Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto, (1997);
- Scenario for the derivation of global CO2 reduction targets and implementation strategies. Statement on the occasion of the First Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Berlin, (1995)
Policy Papers
- New impetus for climate policy: making the most of Germany's dual presidency, (2007);
- Development needs Environmental Protection: Recommendations for the Millennium + 5 summit, (2005);
- Renewable Energies for Sustainable Development: Impulses for renewables, (2004);
- Charging the use of Global Commons, (2002);
- The Johannesburg Opportunity: Key Elements of a Negotiation Strategy, (2001).
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Last updated 16 April 2008