MCC is directly and actively involved in large-scale, international and formalised assessment processes. Moreover we participate in informal science-policy processes via interactions with high-level stakeholders and institutions.
IPCC assessments
The assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided key scientific input for the Paris Agreement. MCC staff made a significant contribution to IPCC´s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Ottmar Edenhofer led and guided the assessment process as Co-Chair of Working Group III (WGIII). This was supported by Jan Minx as Head of the Technical Support Unit in 2015. In addition to these lead positions, eight other MCC staff members contributed to the AR5 assessment in various roles.
Development of an assessment philosophy
MCC was also involved in laying important conceptual foundations for the AR5. The contribution of WGIII to the AR5 is the first comprehensive attempt to implement the MCC assessment model, continuously developed since 2011 by Ottmar Edenhofer in collaboration with group leader Martin Kowarsch.
Other assessment processes
MCC´s assessment on the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS)
MCC initiated its own „pilot-assessment” on the reform of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), mandated by the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE) in 2014. This resulted in the Euro-CASE Policy Position Paper on “Reform Options for the European Emissions Trading System” which was discussed with German stakeholders from industry and energy associations, politics and the scientific community. It was officially handed over to the European Commission and the European Parliament as well as widely disseminated to stakeholders in Brussels.
MCC´s contribution to the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP)
The IPSP will address, inter alia, the profound and unequal transformations in health and education as well as the rising inequalities of wealth and income within and between countries. It will deliver a report in 2017 that addresses all social actors, movements, organizations, politicians and decision-makers and provides them with the best expertise on questions that have a bearing on social change. Ottmar Edenhofer is a coordinating lead author for the chapter on „Growth, Human Development and Planetary Welfare“ and Michael Jakob, leader of the Task Force Public Economics at MCC, is a lead author.
Informal scientific policy advice
We are in dialogue with various stakeholders in a number of formal and less formal processes at the science-policy interface. MCC gives, inter alia, high-level advice to policy makers in the EU, the UN and at the national scale.
Read more about our work in policy dialogue.
