World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability
Flagship Report
2011
- A contribution to the Rio+20 conference 2012 -
In this report, the WBGU explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state.
> download Full text (5.1 MB, 400 pages)
> download summary as pdf (3.7 MB)
> download factsheet 1/2011 - A Social Contract as pdf (106 KB)
> download factsheet 2/2011 - Transforming Energy Systems as pdf (112 KB)
> download factsheet 3/2011 - Global Megatrends as pdf (380 KB)
> download factsheet 4/2011 - The Transformation towards Sustainability as pdf (127 KB)
> download factsheet 5 - Research and Education: Drivers of Transformation as pdf (120 KB)
Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen: A Three-Level Strategy for Success
Policy Paper 6
2010
International climate policy post-Copenhagen is in crisis. There is currently no prospect of the comprehensive and binding UN climate treaty – the outcome hoped for at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference – being achieved within the foreseeable future. However, in order to keep the global mean temperature rise below 2 °C by the end of the century, a resolute course must be set in the international climate process within the next few years. more...
Solving the climate dilemma: The budget approach
Special Report
2009
At their meeting in the Italian city of L’Aquila in July 2009, the heads of state and government of the G8 countries and the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), whose members include India, Brazil and China, acknowledged the importance that global warming must not exceed the 2°C guard rail if dangerous climate change is to be avoided. WBGU views this as an extremely important step towards the adoption of a binding international agreement which establishes a well-founded target for global climate protection. more...
