International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

15. Vilmer Sommerakademie (2016)

Global environmental policy at a crossroads - consequences for nature conservation in Germany

10 to 14 July 2016

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation International Academy for Nature Conservation Island Vilm

Background and goal:

Many environmental and nature conservation goals can no longer be achieved at national level alone, but require the global action of international communities of states and civil societies. In the field of global environmental policy, a large number of treaties have been concluded since the UN Environment Summit in Rio in 1992,
the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity with their follow-up agreements. The 1987 Brundtland Report of the UN called for the goals of environmental protection and nature conservation in terms of sustainable development to be oriented towards humanitarian goals and the possibility of satisfying human needs. In the second decade of the 21st century, at least three major challenges are facing global and national politics:

I. Poverty and its eradication: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted in September 2015 contain a demanding set of humanitarian goals: 169 sustainable development goals in 17 thematic areas are to be achieved by 2030, above all to eradicate poverty, hunger and inequalities.

Climate change II: The resolutions of the Paris Climate Conference of December 2015, if implemented, will lead to a decarbonisation of the global economy within a few decades.

III. flight and migration: Due to global environmental changes, wars and economic crises, rich countries of the global North have increasingly become target countries for flight and migration movements in recent years.

The Summer Academy 2016 is dedicated to the question of what opportunities and challenges nature conservation in Germany faces as a result. How can nature conservation in Germany benefit from the UN's sustainability goals? What challenges will nature conservation in Germany face if sustainability goals are seriously implemented in the global South (e.g. in agriculture)? Creating better living conditions and eliminating the causes of flight in countries of the global South also requires a global environmental policy - what are possible German contributions? What can environmental protection and nature conservation contribute to successful integration? What does decarbonisation mean for nature conservation in Germany? The Summer Academy would like to pursue these - essentially evaluative and normative - questions and again formulate Vilmer theses on them.


Organiser:
 

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) together with the University of Kiel, Philosophisches Seminar and the International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities of the University of Tübingen.

Conception and management of the conference:
Dr. Reinhard Piechocki, Kasnevitz
Dr. Norbert Wiersbinski, BfN-INA Island Vilm
Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott, Dr. Lieske Voget-Kleschin, Kiel University
Prof. Dr. Thomas Potthast, Dr. Simon Meisch, University of Tübingen

Program