Headline: News 2021

Scientific work is not always compatible with the agenda of decision-makers. The book "Breaking the Silos for Planetary Health – a Roadmap for a Resilient Post- pandemic World" aims to build bridges between the communities of health and environment, fundamental players to restructure our societies in the post-Covid era.

Systemic risks are often contradictorily assessed and underestimated by society, leading to delayed policy action. How can science help? A team from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has developed recommendations for policymakers and academics working on the governance of systemic risks such as climate change.

In the climate protection debate and in many climate models, a growing role is played by "negative emissions", which are to be achieved with the help of “climate geoengineering technologies”. At the conference "Climate Engineering in Context", which took place from 4 to 8 October, international experts invited by the IASS discussed the scientific, ethical, political, and social dimensions of these technologies.

Finance is becoming increasingly important as a lever for sustainable development in all policy areas. In mid-May 2021, the fourth Advisory Council Dialogue 2021 of the Science Platform Sustainability (wpn) 2030 and Sustainable Development Solutions Network Germany (SDSN) took place. The results and impulses can now be found (in German) in the paper “Finanz. Macht. Zukunft.”

As the course is now being set for the coming legislative period, policymakers should focus more on citizen participation. A team from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam and the Institute for Research on Democracy and Participation (Institut für Demokratie- und Partizipationsforschung – IDPF) in Wuppertal have formulated a 7+5-point plan

For the first time since it was founded in February, the Brandenburg Sustainability Advisory Board met in person on October 7 2021. The meeting at the IASS focused on the focal topic "Implementation of the energy transition in Brandenburg and CO2-free industrial processes”, as well as key considerations for improving the state’s sustainability strategy.

The communication culture at the UN Climate Change conferences relies heavily on conventional presentation and panel formats that are not conducive to mutual engagement and learning. In a new IASS Policy Brief, researchers make recommendations to reinvigorate the COPs through new formats of dialogue that can better foster collaboration and co-creation of climate change solutions.

What does it feel like when science and society begin a dialogue with one another? This is the question taken up by the new podcast "hör mal : Lausitz" (English: listen in : lusatia), which follows the trail of transdisciplinary cooperation in the transformations taking place in the Eastern German lignite-mining region.

Scientists are constantly working to improve models for energy systems. Is this making the models more responsive to the actual needs of users from politics, business and civil society? IASS researchers have reached a mixed conclusion: While improvements are being made, modellers and users need to collaborate more closely to make full use of the potential of models for the energy transition.