ZEW Lunch Debate in Brussels Addresses 21st UN Climate Change Conference

This year from late November until mid-December, 195 countries will meet for the 21st time at the United Nations (UN) climate negotiating table in Paris, aiming to replace the Kyoto Protocol by a new global agreement on mandatory climate targets. At the previous conference in late 2014 in Lima, Peru, however, the leaders were unable to reach an agreement on how to save the climate. This time, summit participants hope to reshuffle the pack: Will attempts on part of the European Union, the USA and China fuel new dynamics towards a fair and effective climate agreement? And how can measures considered "fair" and "effective" be implemented in practice? The question if and which obstacles have been removed on the way from Lima to Paris will be the focus of the next ZEW Lunch Debate set to take place at the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the European Union in Brussels on November 18, 2015.

The outlook on the climate negotiations of 2014 had been optimistic: Washington and Beijing had mutually agreed on setting ambitious national climate goals, sending a signal that the path leading to mandatory global climate targets might be shorter than we believed. The fact that the participants of the Peru summit nonetheless reached only a minimum consensus casts a shadow on the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference. The international community of states is once again facing a variety of  negotiating positions. Contrary to the "top down" architecture of the Kyoto Protocol, a "bottom up" approach is supposed to lay the ground for more realistic emission targets in a new climate agreement.

The ZEW Lunch Debate on "The Road to Paris: Towards a Fair and Effective Climate Agreement?" will address various aspects of the subject, including political, economic, societal and technological issues. The panel at the Lunch Debate:

• Dr. Oliver Schenker, acting head of the Research Department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management" at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW),
• Dr. Jos Delbeke, Director-General of the European Commission's DG for Climate Action,
• Professor Rudolf Schüßler, tenured professor for philosophy at the University of Bayreuth, economist and expert for tolerance research, negotiation ethics and theories of justice.

ZEW President Professor Clemens Fuest will chair the panel discussion after a presentation by Dr. Oliver Schenker on the event's central topic.

The ZEW Lunch Debate series was launched in 2014. It provides a lunchtime platform for experts to discuss current economic challenges facing Europe. Events within this series, which take place in Brussels on a regular basis, provide an opportunity for controversial, open and committed debate.