25. November 2021, 12:00 - 14:00 p.m. CET

Public Guest Lecture

Climate change is one of the main challenges of our time and poses an existential threat to people and the environment. The destabilising effects of climate change on peace and security in many regions of the world are already apparent, so that geopolitical and geostrategic issues are also becoming increasingly relevant in this context. As a self-proclaimed global pioneer in this field, the European Union considers a sustainable climate policy to be a central element of its foreign policy. Through active climate diplomacy, the EU seeks to advance the implementation of multilateral agreements (such as the Paris Agreement) and to support other states in their climate policy efforts. Europe also seeks to work closely with partners around the world to achieve its own climate policy goals and ambitions, build strategic partnerships and mitigate the destabilising effects of climate change on peace and security in certain regions. Especially against the background of this year's COP26 in Glasgow, the EU will have to explore how other relevant actors such as the United States, China or Russia can be included in its Green Deal and how climate policy cooperation with these states could be shaped. In addition, it must be considered how the interests of smaller developing countries could be taken into account and integrated in a sustainable global climate policy.
Climate diplomacy is an important instrument of the EU’s foreign policy to meet the challenges of climate change, to strengthen multilateralism in the long term and to promote intergovernmental confidence- and peace-building in the world. This event will feature leading experts to address this issue and will take a closer look at the EU's climate diplomacy efforts.

Impulse Statements and Discussion

Prof. Dr. Michael Mehling
Deputy Director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR)

Achim Schkade
Head of Division for Climate and Environmental Foreign Policy, Federal Foreign Office, Germany

Moderator

Dr. Friedbert Pflüger
Head of the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at CASSIS, University of Bonn