Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger have today appointed the members of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) for the ninth term of office of the advisory board. The appeal is valid from 1. November 2024 to 31. October 2028. In the run-up to the UN conference in Rio in 1992, the WBGU was set up as an independent scientific advisory body of the Federal Government with the task of providing policy advice on global change, i.e. to analyse global environmental and development problems and their consequences and to develop them to solve action and research recommendations to the Federal Government.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke: "We are living in a time of major ecological threats and geopolitical challenges. In such times, a fact and knowledge-based policy is absolutely necessary. In view of the triple crisis of climate crisis, extinction and environmental pollution, which affects all areas of life, politics, civil society, business and science must work together. Responsible policy is forward-looking and for this we need scientific expertise with an interdisciplinary, integrated view. The Scientific Advisory Board on Global Change (WBGU) is now appointed for the next four years to provide this integrated view in its expert reports and analyses. I look forward to working with this and to the future reports."
Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger: "We will only be able to answer the global questions of our time with research and innovation. The changes involved require interdisciplinary scientific support. Only the cooperation of different disciplines provides a comprehensive picture. The transdisciplinary statements of the WGBU will remain an important decision-making aid for the Federal Government. I am particularly pleased that the WBGU will be focusing more on education issues. Change processes only succeed if society can shape it. Education, from early childhood to part-time, enables society to actively shape its future for the ninth working period, I wish all members every success. I look forward to the impulses."
Advisory board members reappointed were (in alphabetical order):
- Professor Jörg Drewes, Environmental Engineer, Technical University of Munich
- Professor Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Development and Knowledge Sociologist, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and University of Bonn
- Professor Karen Pittel, Economist, Ifo Institute, Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and University of Munich
- Professor Hans-Otto Pörtner, ecophysiologist and climate researcher, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
- Professor Sabine Schlacke, Legal Scientist, University of Greifswald
- Professor Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, physician, University of Augsburg
Newly appointed to the WBGU were:
- Professor Aletta Bonn, biologist, University of Jena
- Professor Kai Maaz, Educationalist / Social scientist, University of Frankfurt a.M.
- Professor Joscha Wullweber, political scientist, Witten-Herdecke University
The two ministers would like to thank the members of the eighth advisory board period for their committed work. In particular, the fundamental work on the topics of environment and health, biodiversity and water has generated important decision-making knowledge. On the 11th In October, the WBGU handed over his last main report to the eighth advisory period "Water in an Heated World" to Ms. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Mario Brandenburg.
With the consent of the Cabinet, the nine members of the are appointed for four years and are personalities who have special knowledge and experience with regard to the above-mentioned tasks of the Advisory Board. They are experts from science with very different qualification profiles such as economics, natural and social sciences, and environmental law sciences.
Source: BMUV Press release