European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change

The European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change began in 2001 with the first Berlin Conference. The European conferences are mid-size annual events (much smaller than Open Meetings of IHDP or IGBP) of about 150 international participants, selected through rigorous international peer review. Each conference has a clear thematic focus that allows for intense exchange and discussion. Conference themes are selected with a view to bringing new and emerging topics to the European and global debate, thus ensuring the continuous innovative thrust of the conference series. Special conference features, including panels on teaching and targeted programmes for doctoral students, add to its innovative character. From 2007 on, the conference venue will alternate annually between Amsterdam and Berlin, bringing about the Europeanisation of this successful conference cycle.

Currently, two conferences are under preparation as part of the series. The 2006 Berlin Conference addresses the topic “Resource Policies – Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity” and will be held in Berlin on 17-18 November. The 2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change is the latest in the emerging series of European conferences on human dimensions research.

The European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change are endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and the World Academy of Art and Science. The International Steering Committee ensures close integration with the overarching Earth System Science Programme and other networks, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

In addition, the European Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change aim to further the integration of the European research projects in order to assist in shaping a European research area in the field of the human dimensions of global environmental change. Plenary and semi-plenary presentations of major European research programmes, as well as poster sessions, form an essential part of the conference series.

Major European research institutes, programmes and projects are being invited to financially and logistically support the European conferences depending on their respective focus.
 

2006 – `Resource Policy: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity´

Conference Chair: Klaus Jacob
Conference Manager: Henrik Vagt

The sustainable use of natural resources has been a challenge for environmental policies from their very beginning. Without an appropriate institutional setting, scarce resources such as water, materials, energy sources, land, etc. are overused, following the infamous logic of the tragedy of the commons. Related to this are issues of effective resource policies, efficient resource consumption, and equity on a global scale.

The 2006 Berlin Conference addresses the following topics:
How and how effectively are governments, public and private actors around the world addressing these problems? Given the rising demand for industrial goods, what are the potentials and limitations of strategies to increase resource productivity and the cleaning of waste streams? What are the most promising entry points for governmental interventions? Are regulatory policies, such as take-back obligations for waste, a viable instrument towards cleaner production chains? To what extent are recent efforts to develop product policies likely to be effective and efficient? To what extent are institutions by private actors such as the Stewardship Councils to protect the Marine and the Forests a promising approach? What strategies are adopted in developing countries to safeguard access to and sustainable use of natural resources and how do they work?

As in previous conferences, a number of renowned academics and practitioners will be taking speeches at the 2006 Berlin Conference, among them so far:

• Professor Paul Ekins, Policy Studies Institute London, UK,
• Prof. Marina Fischer-Kowalski, IFF Vienna – Department of Social Ecology, Austria,
• Prof. Martin Jänicke, Freie Universitaet Berlin – Environmental Policy Research Centre, Germany
• Prof. Daniel Bromley, University of Wisconsin, USA
• Dr. Antonio Pflueger, IEA, France
• Prof. Claudia Kemfert, DIW Berlin
• Prof. Thomas Sterner, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Mathis Wackernagel, Ecological Footprint Network, USA

2005 – `International Organisations and Global Environmental Governance´

Conference Chair: Frank Biermann
Conference Co-Chair: Bernd Siebenhüner
Conference Manager: Anna Schreyögg

The 2005 Berlin Conference addressed the role of international organisations in global environmental governance, including the United Nations system, intergovernmental agencies outside the UN system, regional integration schemes such as the European Union (EU), and nongovernmental transnational actors. The effects of international organisations in global environmental governance were discussed as well as the relevance and effects of organisational design, the interplay of international organisations within larger regimes, environmental policy integration within international organisations, and new theoretical concepts to understand organisational behaviour.
The 2005 Conference featured around 180 participants from all continents, including keynote speeches from Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director at the UNDP, Jürgen Trittin, former Minister for the Environment.
The 2005 Berlin Conference was organised by the Global Governance Project (Glogov.org) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Institute for Environmental Studies), the Freie Universität Berlin (Environmental Policy Research Centre), the University of Oldenburg and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Additional support was provided by Volkswagen Foundation, Germany.

www.fu-berlin.de/ffu/akumwelt/bc2005
www.glogov.org
www.environmental-policy.de
 

2004—‘Greening of Policies: Interlinkages and Policy Integration’

Conference Chair: Klaus Jacob
Conference Manager: Daniel Pentzlin

The 2004 Berlin Conference addressed the obstacles to integrated decision-making and successful strategies of policy integration, with an emphasis on interactions between regimes and policies on international and national levels. Core questions included: What types of institutions succeed in strengthening policy integration? In how far are integration efforts affected by economic and political globalisation, the shift from government to governance, or the transition from environmental protection to sustainable development? What methods allow for an ex ante evaluation of the economic, social and environmental effects of policies and programmes? To what extent do international regimes affect the capacities for a greening of policies at the national level, and vice versa? What mechanisms ensure the coherence of different international regimes?
The 2004 Berlin Conference featured more than 100 speakers from all continents and various disciplines in 30 panels and 11 keynote speeches, including by Richard Odingo, vice-chair, IPCC and University of Nairobi; Oran Young, chair, IDGEC Scientific Steering Committee and University of California at Santa Barbara; Frans Berkhout, chair, IHDP-IT Scientific Steering Committee and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; and Nicholas Ashford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
The conference was organised by the Environmental Policy Research Centre of the Freie Universität Berlin, in co-operation with the Global Governance Project Glogov.org, on behalf of the Environmental Policy and Global Change Section of the German Political Science Association.
 

2003—‘Governance for Industrial Transformation’

Conference Chair: Klaus Jacob
Conference Manager: Bianca Barth

The 2003 Berlin Conference, held 5-6 December, focused on political strategies to limit the overuse of natural resources and emissions from industrial activities. Participants addressed the historical experiences with the management of industrial transformation, stimulation of environmental innovations and the emergence of markets for environmental technologies; methods and indicators for the forecast of future technological development; new strategies and instruments, such as the so-called ‘3rd generation policy instruments’ and evolutionary approaches; and the interconnectedness of levels of policy-making and actors.

The meeting brought together 130 participants from 20 countries, with 57 papers presented. Keynote speakers included Rainer Baake, secretary of state of Germany’s environment ministry; Pier Vellinga, chair of the IHDP-IT Scientific Steering Committee; Wolfram Mauser, chair of Germany’s National Committee on Global Change Research; Frans Berkhout, University of Sussex and IHDP-IT Scientific Steering Committee; and Ashok Jaitly, The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi.

The conference was organised by the Environmental Policy Research Centre of the Freie Universität Berlin in co-operation with the Sustime project led by the University of Applied Sciences Lausitz, the Global Governance Project Glogov.org, and the German Association for Ecological Economic Research (VÖW), with financial support by the German Science Foundation and additional support from the IHDP core project ‘Industrial Transformation’ and its project office at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Publications:

Governance for Industrial Transformation. Proceedings of the 2003 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, ed. by K Jacob, M Binder and A Wieczorek. Berlin: Environmental Policy Research Centre.
 

2002—‘Knowledge for the Sustainability Transition: The Challenge for Social Science’

Conference Chair: Frank Biermann
Conference Manager: Sabine Campe

The 2002 Berlin Conference, held 6-7 December, focussed on the intellectual foundations of global environmental governance. Do we need new kinds of knowledge or new ways to generate knowledge for the sustainability transition? How does knowledge affect decision-making for sustainability, and how do societal systems influence the ways in which sustainability knowledge is generated? How can social and scientific institutions be designed, and possibly reformed, to generate better sustainability-relevant knowledge and increase its use for decision-makers?

About 220 scientists from 29 countries participated in the meeting, which included a total of 111 plenary and panel presentations. Keynote speakers included the chairs of four major research and assessment programmes—Rajendra Pachauri (IPCC), Coleen Vogel (IHDP), Oran Young (IHDP/IDGEC) and John Schellnhuber (IGBP/GAIM).
The conference was organised on behalf of the German Political Science Association by the Global Governance Project Glogov.org.

Publications:

Knowledge for the Sustainability Transition: The Challenge for Social Science. Proceedings of the 2002 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, ed. by F Biermann, S Campe and K Jacob. The Global Governance Project: Amsterdam, Berlin, Potsdam and Oldenburg, 2004.

Knowledge for the Sustainability Transition: The Challenge for Social Science, ed. by F Biermann, S Campe and K Jacob. Heidelberg: Springer, forthcoming.
 

2001—‘Global Environmental Change and the Nation State’

Conference Chair: Frank Biermann
Conference Managers: Klaus Dingwerth, Rainer Brohm et al.

The 2001 Berlin Conference, held 7-8 December, launched the now regular series of Berlin Conferences. The meeting focussed on the ways in which global environmental change and the emerging system of global governance has affected the role and sovereignty of the nation state. Participants discussed ways in which the nation state is today constrained through global institutions, and ways in which it has gained importance as the pioneer of new approaches, policies and technologies and as the key agent in the global diffusion of new ideas. The conference also featured case studies on national environmental policies that compared the ‘vertical influence’ of international institutions with the ‘horizontal influence’ of transnational diffusion.

The meeting brought together 166 researchers from 28 countries with different perspectives on global change and the nation state, including students of international relations and international law, environmental sociologists and economists, as well as experts on national environmental policy and comparative politics.

Keynote addresses were delivered by Klaus Töpfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, and Jürgen Trittin, the German Federal Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Other plenary speakers included Martin Jänicke, Freie Universität Berlin; Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University; Ronald B. Mitchell, Oregon University; Peter H. Sand, University of Munich and IDGEC Scientific Steering Committee; and Arild Underdal, University of Oslo and chair of the IHDP Scientific Committee.

The 2001 Berlin Conference was organised on behalf of the German Political Science Association by the joint Global Governance Project Glogov.Org of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin and Oldenburg University. Core support was provided by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Germany’s Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Energy. The conference was also endorsed by the Federation of German Scientists and the German Association for the United Nations, Berlin-Brandenburg Chapter.

Publications:

Global Environmental Change and the Nation State: Proceedings of the 2001 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, ed. by F Biermann, R Brohm and K Dingwerth. Potsdam: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 2002.

Global Environmental Change and the Nation State. Special Issue of Global Environmental Politics 4: 1 (February 2004), ed. by F Biermann and K Dingwerth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.