Apart from being run by a Red Red coalition, the Land of Brandenburg revolves around Potsdam.
Many may remember this city as the venue of the Potsdam Conference held between the three leaders – Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin – at this time of the year way back in 1945 but at present one of its most eminent buildings is the one that houses the highly influential Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Highly regarded worldwide, it is also known for the various international government ministers that visit it together with top scientists and researchers as well as for its in-depth studies that carry much gravitas and weight.
What many do not know is that Brandenburg, where the Institute’s headquarters are located in the Land’s capital, was the first region in Germany to be subjected to climate change analysis.
Based on various IPCC scenarios, a regional climate model provided data and offered conclusions about the climate trends that can be expected here in future.
While up until then everyone had been complimenting Brandenburg on its lakes, which were more numerous than in any other area in Germany, the negative hydrological balance anticipated in the long term shocked many people, particularly since, on the basis of these findings, it is now expected to impact considerably on the region’s ecology and agriculture.
The Institute’s research in recent years shows that one does not have to choose between two options: either economic growth without mitigation or mitigation without growth. Particularly since they feel that there can be harmony between the two.
But when it comes to down to earth assessments, they do not live in the clouds as certain scientists might occasionally tend to do, or else resort to doom-laden scenarios for their own sake.
During our visit in our capacity of members of the German Maltese Parliamentary Friendship Group, we met the Director of their Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities Department as well as the Head of their North South Group.
Their funding is considerable. Some €9.5m per annum at a German institutional level and some additional €9.7m from external and project-linked funding sources that include the EU itself and the corporate sector.
Their research domains are four in all:
• Earth system analysis
• Climate impact and vulnerabilities
• Sustainable solutions
• Transdisciplinary concerns
Over the years, their top people and departments have acted and served as scientific policy advisors for the Federal Government itself, the UN, Federal State Governments and the EU Commission, among others.
Just after we left, India’s Environment Minister was expected to visit.
What is best about this think tank is that they provide scientific input for decision-makers. They also engage in high-level stakeholder dialogue with various other key European and American institutes of innovation and technology such as MIT.
We were pleasantly surprised to note that they had prepared a power point presentation on both the Mediterranean in general and Malta in particular.
After being told that water will be the key issue in climate matters in the coming years, they also opined that if not enough funds can be mustered to reduce and mitigate climate, then one will simply have to go for adaptation, something that also found a similar echo even at a political level amongst parliamentarians we met later.
As far as Malta is concerned, they were of the opinion that what would cause costs to rise most in the battle against climate change is flood protection and salt water intrusion which, in their scientific opinion, can lead to cumulative damage costs.
Although the sea level rises higher in other oceans than the Mediterranean, they felt that the period of water harvesting in Malta will shorten, while evaporation has already increased by some 15 per cent.
They predict that our temperatures are likely to rise by 1.1 degree C between 2021 and 2050 and by some 2.3 degrees C between 2051 and 2080.
They feel that, in the years to come, there will be a substantial heat stress increase of some 200-500 per cent as will also be reflected in our region’s Dangerous Heat Index.
While certain governments continue to show indifference towards climate issues simply due to a lack of political will or inadequate funding and the wrong priorities, they made the point that environmental conflicts in Africa resulting from climate change carry inherent security risks, to the extent that they argued that climate policy is a security policy.
This was confirmed by none other than the British Coalition only days after a number of Conservative MEPs watered down a climate resolution in the European Parliament.
They did so by agreeing that whatever stance governments might take publicly and officially, for both the British Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon itself climate indeed was a security issue.
We also had occasion to discuss the issue of environmental refugees, particularly where water supplies are inadequate or where abnormal rises in sea levels occur.
Sudan was cited as a case in point. The same was done for all those other countries and regions where climatic and weather extremes tend to increase social disparities.
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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change