The ClimAct platform shapes societal transformations within the framework of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The ClimAct platform shapes societal transformations within the framework of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. istock/honglouwawa

Headline: Climate Action in National and International Processes (ClimAct)

ClimAct focuses on participation in and understanding of political forums that aim to drive climate action, with a particular emphasis on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC). As participants in these political processes, ClimAct facilitates and shapes transformations towards sustainability within the framework of the Paris Agreement and the SDGs. At the same time, ClimAct adopts a critical posture in examining how such national and international political processes advance transformations toward sustainability. A core area of ClimAct expertise is in the linkages between air pollution and climate change - the combination of which was recently ranked as the top threat to global health.

What can an integrated approach to air pollution and climate change achieve?

ClimAct combines perspectives from the natural and social sciences with "real world" experience in political practice to examine the potentials and limits of an integrated approach to air quality and climate change in the context of broader political goals. Key to ClimAct's perspective is our participation in and study of the CCAC. Researchers consider questions such as: Can local action on air pollution be leveraged to raise ambitions for international climate goals? Can smaller initiatives contribute to efforts to fulfil the Paris Agreement targets? What governance role does the CCAC play within the climate policy landscape?

Building bridges between science and international climate politics

ClimAct brings its inter- and transdisciplinary perspective to questions of climate and air quality governance and develops policy recommendations. The team uses international forums such as the UNFCCC and the CCAC as platforms for convening participatory and co-creative dialogues with actors from science, policy, and civil society.

Completed Projects

Sustainable Development Pathways Achieving Human Well-being while Safeguarding the Climate And Planet Earth (SHAPE)

The SHAPE project aims to co-develop and analyze a new set of global target-seeking scenarios: the Sustainable Development Pathways (SDPs). SHAPE investigates interactions between options to mitigate climate change and the broader agenda of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, the project brings together integrated assessment modelling for model-based system analysis, industrial ecology modeling, social sciences, and participatory dialogue methods.

Berlin Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change

Berlin aims to become climate-neutral by 2050. The transformation processes this entails will affect almost all areas of life, making the wide involvement of civil society essential. With the Berlin Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change, the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection hopes to incorporate various perspectives from Berlin's inhabitants. The IASS is accompanying the Citizens' Assembly together with the nexus institute and the group "Klima-Mitbestimmung JETZT".