10 years of the Kyoto Protocol

2 degrees Celsius? What is still achievable in climate protection? Book launch and discussion in Berlin

February 18, 2015

The Kyoto Protocol, one of the most important climate protection treaties, came into effect in 2005. However, its goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions as the main cause of increased global warming continues to pose a challenge for international politics. In industrialised countries, CO2 emissions are still rising. The question of what can be demanded of developing and emerging economies is, as yet, unsettled.

It is a goal of both German and European politics to limit the increase in global warming until 2100 to two degrees Celsius, in order to counteract a possible projected rise of approximately 4°C. This is based on the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But how realistic is the 2°C target? What would need to be done to achieve it, and would those measures actually get the problem under control? Why do climate negotiations so often founder, and what is possible from a scientific perspective?

Oceanographer Jochem Marotzke of the Hamburg-based Max Planck Institute for Meteorology is considered one of the world's leading climatologists and is a member of the team involved in drawing up the scientific reports of the IPCC. At the Max Planck Forum, he and Jan Minx of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research presented his latest publication: "Die Zukunft des Klimas. Neue Erkenntnisse, neue Herausforderungen. Ein Report der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft." (The future of climate. New discoveries, new challenges. A report of the Max Planck Society.) Edited by Jochem Marotzke and Martin Stratmann. Publisher: C.H. Beck. Munich 2015.

Guests on the podium:

Prof. Jochem Marotzke, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg
Prof. Jan Minx, head of the IPCC Technical Support Unit at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

Moderator: Ralf Krauter, science journalist (Deutschlandfunk)

Date 18 Feb. 2015 | 7:00 p.m.

Venue Einstein Hall
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Jägerstraße 22/23
10117 Berlin-Mitte

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