Virtual PEGNet Conference
Climate risks and policies: Towards resilient low-carbon economies
The Covid-19 pandemic creates an acute crisis. It also highlights the need for international development cooperation to anticipate better the coming systemic challenge of climate change. Like the current pandemic, climate change is a risk multiplier: It increases risks, fragility, inequalities and the vulnerability of economies, in particular in the developing world. Responding to the challenges of climate change requires a comprehensive approach to transition towards resilient low-carbon economies. Achieving this transition requires an understanding of the socio-economic and socio-political factors that enable and constrain a “just transition“. Decarbonization policies and instruments have to consider the social and economic consequences and the corresponding political economy. They will have to be implemented pro-actively with a focus on disadvantaged people and those negatively affected. At the same time, prospective climate change impacts need to be better understood and anticipated, in particular their interaction with other socio-economic systemic failures, including fragility, poverty and vulnerability.
Organisers
The conference is co-organised by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), and the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the KfW Development Bank.