Delegation from the University of Kassel in Dubai

Mr. Braun, Mr. Lechtenböhmer, you are on the Board of Directors of the Kassel Institute for Sustainability and are flying to Dubai for the climate conference in the next few days. What are you doing there?

Stefan Lechtenböhmer: Together with the Wuppertal Institute, Lund University and others, we are organizing a side event, a format for exchange between science and climate negotiators. Formats like this give global civil society a voice at the climate conference. In our event, we are looking at the question of how we can decarbonize industry globally, and we are doing this in collaboration with international partners. After all, it makes little sense for us to convert blast furnaces in Germany and then let dirty blast furnaces in other countries take over.

Do you believe that these scientific events will influence the negotiations? They are years in the making.

Andreas Braun: You're right, this is of course more of a medium to long-term persuasion effort. But you shouldn't underestimate the discussion with the negotiating delegations. And it's also about exchanging ideas and networking within the scientific community in order to advance research.

The track record of previous conferences is moderate.

Lechtenböhmer: It's a glass-half-full-half-empty kind of discussion. You could say that the world has been meeting for 30 years and greenhouse gas emissions have doubled in that time. On the other hand, a lot has been achieved, think of the Paris Agreement. What is the alternative? Climate change won't wait. What's more, the climate conferences are almost the only place where the world's countries still work together constructively.

So what do you expect from COP28 in Dubai?

Lechtenböhmer: There is some movement in terms of climate aid for poorer and emerging countries. And people who are closer to it than I am are cautiously optimistic that we could reach a global target of tripling the expansion of renewable energies, which would be an important step.

You won't be traveling to Dubai by boat...

Braun: Always a dilemma! The conferences cause a lot of CO2 emissions. And then this conference is taking place in a country that lives from oil exports. It's a bit like a human rights conference in North Korea. I wrestled with myself for a long time as to whether there was any point in attending. But not putting more pressure on politicians from the scientific side can't be the solution either. At least the CO2 emissions caused by flights are being offset.

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Dr. Stefan Lechtenböhmer recently took up a professorship for Sustainable Technology Design in Kassel. He was previously Department Head at the renowned Wuppertal Institute. As a scientist, he has already accompanied several climate conferences on site.

Dr. Andreas Braun holds a professorship for Human-Environment Interactions. Like Lechtenböhmer, he is a member of the Kassel Institute's Board of Directors. Among other things, he is interested in how climate change scenarios are modeled.

Dr. Ina Sieber is a research associate in the Human-Environment Interactions department. Her research focuses on adaptation to climate change and biodiversity.

Dr. Klaus Vajen holds a professorship in solar and systems engineering. The solar association ISES consists mainly of scientists and other experts and is recognized by the UN as a non-governmental member organization. In Dubai, Vajen is involved in a side event on renewable energies.

Interview: Sebastian Mense