MCC in preparation for COP21

In preparation for an ambitious climate governance regime top-researchers from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) contribute in leading positions to the scientific conference “Our common future under climate change”, taking place at the Unesco headquarters in Paris, July 7th to 10th. In preparation of the COP21 at the end of 2015 - also in Paris – they present their latest knowledge and address key issues concerning climate change in the broader context of global change.

Specifically, MCC director Ottmar Edenhofer, who is also a member of the conference's scientific commitee, will give a keynote entitled “A Map of the Solutions Space: Mitigation" in the plenary session “Responding to Climate Change Challenges” and will give an answer to the question “Why finance ministers favor carbon taxes, even if they do not believe in climate change?” in the session on the macroeconomic opportunity of climate policy.

Sabine Fuss, head of the MCC working group Sustainable Resource Management & Global Change is the session convener of “Negative emissions for climate change stabilization & the role of CO₂ geological storage” and gives a keynote on “Carbon Removal Solutions: Discussion on Research and Development Needs”. Furthermore, Jan Christoph Steckel, head of MCC working group Climate and Develpoment, is session convener of a panel with the same name and gives – together with his colleague Michael Jakob – insights on “Feasible Mitigation Options for Developing Countries”.

Junior MCC staff will also add to the conference: Lion Hirth presents his viewpoint on “What Can We Learn from the Modelling of Electricity Markets with and without Policy Interventions?”, Linus Mattauch gives an overview of the fiscal benefits of climate policy and Steffen Lohrey assesses climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation strategies across scales from rural to urban.

“Our Common Future” has received more than 2,200 contributions that are discussed in more than 140 parallel sessions and in four plenary sessions. Besides MCC Director Edenhofer, more than 30 high profile keynote speakers attend the event in preparation of the COP21. Thereby, the scientific community, in partnerships with a variety of stakeholders, wants to identify potential sustainable futures and innovations under climate change by designing and assessing relevant and coherent solutions, policies and measures. The main objective of the conference in Paris in December 2015 is to produce a cooperation framework for a new climate governance regime.

Another summary of the "Our Common Future" plenary session can be found here.