News 2017

The tightening of the climate target in the Paris Agreement (to significantly below 2°C and preferably to 1,5°C) could paradoxically weaken the efforts in climate politics. The 1,5°C-goal will most likely only succeed with a temporary exceedance of this benchmark. Only by combining aggressive reduction of emissions and extensive extraction of CO2 from the atmosphere, the temperature might fall below this agreed benchmark decades later. | Continue...

In the context of the current climate summit in Bonn, ZIN-member Prof. Andreas Löschel gave interviews on various aspects of climate change in the national radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur and on TV broadcast Lokalzeit Münsterland. | Continue...

The implementation of sustainability is a topic not only brought into focus by social and political actors but increasingly by economic actors as well. The question of the actual understanding and significance of sustainability can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. An excursion organized by the Career Service to the ATLANTA Group in Wesel offers a chance to do so. | Continue...

Professor Löschel, chairman of the governmental expert commission on monitoring the German energy transition and ZIN-member, as well as other leading experts on energy and climate protection are making a plea for a realignment of the economic framework of the energy transition in the current edition of the magazine “Handelsblatt”. | Continue...

On October 19 2017, the Institute of Landscape Ecology, managed by ZIN-member Prof. Tillmann Buttschardt, organises the event "Future-proof landscaping based on local ecosystem structures". There are several programm points... | Continue

Be it minerals, land, water, forests or pastures: all over the world, peasants, indigenous people, pastoralists, or urban dwellers, but also political and economic elites claim access to natural resources. Furthermore, global climate change reinforces the struggle over renewable resources, as do various kinds of land, green or even blue grabs and increasing population growth. But how exactly do these conflicts arise, how are they pursued and how can they be solved? | Continue...

For a long time, the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) failed to address the goal of a sustainable management of european and global fisheries. However, the reform of 2013/2014 seemed to represent a turning point, introducing among others a maximum sustainable yield aim and the prohibition of controversial fishing practices. The origins of this reform are examined in a new Sustainable Governance Discussion Paper. | Continue...

The Münster Junior Researchers Colloquium on Sustainability Governance aims to bring together international young scholars and academics focusing on sustainability governance. | Continue...

At the MMM 2017, an international group of scholars – among them ZIN-spokeswoman Prof.’in Doris Fuchs - assembled at the University of Muenster again, to further explore the concept of sustainable consumption corridors as a basis for the urgently needed sustainability transformation. | Continue...

Why don’t we succeed in translating the high environmental consciousness, documented in numerous population surveys, into environmentally friendly actions? Björn Wendt and Benjamin Görgen, research assistants of ZIN-member Prof. Dr. Matthias Grundmann, address this research gap in their recently published study on the underlying link between environmental consciousness and environmental behavior. | Continue...

Inspired by the American Brown Bag Lunches, the first ZIN- “Brotzeitkolloquium” (“Brotzeit” being the German term for a light meal) took place in summer term 2016, inviting researchers from different disciplines to illustrate how “their” field approaches the topic sustainability. The lectures were open to both students of all departments as well as to interested citizens. | Continue...

A new brochure summarizes the main ideas of the SCORAI Europe-Workshop 2016 dealing with the implementation of sustainable consumption and social justice. | Continue...

Today, a kick-off event in the historical city hall of Münster opens up a six-day Citizens’ Forum on Climate Protection (“Bürgerforum Münster Klimaschutz 2050”). The Forum includes numerous events and workshops targeting on the creation of visions and projects helping to make Münster climate-neutral... | Continue...

Tomorrow, March 23rd 2017, the National Conference on the implementation of sustainable consumption takes place in Berlin. ZIN-spokeswoman Prof.’in Doris Fuchs is invited to the conference under the motto of “Sustainable Consumption in Germany – Fair, ecological and collectively responsible” (own translation). In the run up to the conference, Prof.’in Fuchs and other well-known consumption researchers wrote an open letter conveying sharp criticism in relation to the National Program for sustainable consumption. | Continue...

The 1,5-degree goal counts among the most path-breaking and at the same time most challenging of the goals which were agreed upon in course of the UN-Climate Conference 2015. At first aiming at keeping the global increase of temperature under 2 degree compared with the pre-industrial level, they finally reinforced their objectives: The global average temperature shall not rise more than 1,5 degree compared to the pre-industrial level in the future. | Continue...

After their feature about the introduction of a reusable cup system in Münster on January 18th, the German broadcasting company WDR reported on the broader perspectives of eco-friendly alternatives to single-use cups on February 2nd, again cooperating with the ZIN. | Read more...

On the 22nd of December 2016, the members of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) elected Prof.’in Dr. Sabine Schlacke and Dirk Messner as their co-chairs for the coming two years. | Read more...

On the 18th of January, the German broadcasting company WDR reported on the introduction of a returnable cup system in Münster. For quite a while already, the big amount of waste resulting from disposable coffee cups was seen as a problem by some of the city’s bakeries. Since for hygienic reasons they do not want to refill cups brought by clients themselves, these bakeries now designed both reusable cups as well as a deposit system for them: The so called “Gilde-Becher”, named after the group of bakeries in charge of the initiative, will be handed out to clients in all of their shops and can be returned after its usage to be cleaned and handed out again. A fresh cup can then be taken at the next usage. Even if the plan is not field-tested yet, a pilot run will start in February. | Read more...