No Limits to Growth?

Five years after the Paris Agreement, emissions still haven‘t peaked, let alone declined at rates urgently needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Mitigation plans and pledges increasingly bet on high-risk technologies such as CCS, geoengineering and nuclear energy, as well as „overshooting“ the 1.5°C limit.

However, available mitigation scenarios do not reflect the full range of possible future trajectories. For instance, virtually all of them continue to rely on global economic growth until the end of the century. That makes it increasingly difficult to achieve ambitious mitigation goals like staying below 1.5°C.

This online event will explore the mitigation benefits of envisioning a deeper transformation of our economies and societies, one that goes beyond technological change.

We will open the event by presenting the results of the „Societal Transfomation Scenario“, a new global mitigation scenario (launch on 9 December, 2020), which challenges not only the notion of perpetual global economic growth but also its compatibility with ambitious climate goals. It shows how through a reduction of production and consumption in the Global North, we can stay below 1.5°C without resorting to high-risk technologies while avoiding temperature overshoot.

What if we push for limits to production and consumption, in particular in wealthy countries of the Global North? To what extent are pathways of deeper transformation reflected in current work of the IPCC? What can we expect from the upcoming Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)?

With this online event, we aim to open up the discussion around alternative pathways and future trajectories that are currently not considered in mainstream mitigation scenarios.
 

Speakers:

• Kai Kuhnhenn, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, Germany
• Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Central European University Budapest and IPCC Working Group III Vice Chair

Facilitation: Linda Schneider, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Senior Programme Officer International Climate Policy

Contact:
Kristin Funke
Heinrich Böll Foundation
International Environmental Policy Division
E funke@boell.de

Please be advised that online events will be held using the software provided by Zoom. Depending on the type of event (that is, with or without audience participation), you may require a camera and/or a microphone in order to be able to take part.

You may either use the software client or the app. The internet browsers Chrome and Edge will enable you to participate simply via an access link. Further information on how to use Zoom is available here. Please make sure that you are using the latest version of Zoom so that you have the necessary settings.

The access information will be sent to you via e-mail 24 h prior to the event and, again, 2 h prior to the event.

All events are subject to our privacy policy. The Heinrich Böll Foundation is not liable for issues arising from the use of Zoom software. The current Zoom privacy policy is available here.