The climate crisis requires a fundamental transformation of our energy systems, as the largest share of human-induced greenhouse gases comes from the energy system. Therefore, a drastic reduction in fossil fuel emissions is urgently needed to achieve climate neutrality in the medium term - and thus prevent a further rise in global temperatures. The conversion of the energy system is technical, as it involves constructing, modifying and dismantling public and private infrastructures: thus, actors - often state or state-related - must ensure that the electricity grid is expanded, gas pipelines are dismantled or converted, and power plants are replaced. But private actors are also called upon to invest in energy-efficient buildings and low-emission means of transport or to rethink their choice of transport. Therefore, the energy transition also requires appropriate framework conditions to incentivise actors in the energy system to adapt their investments and behaviour to this challenge.

The energy price crisis, triggered by the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, has once again highlighted the urgency of diversifying our energy sources. But it has also raised questions, both in the media and politically, about whether the European strategy of making many of these decisions in markets is adequate for our time's challenges. Alternatively, solutions that contain more collective and planning elements are often proposed: re-nationalisation of energy companies, price caps and floors, or state provision for energy storage.

But how do these different ideas of organising the economy affect climate mitigation? Are European energy markets climate-proof? What measures are already in place at the European and national levels to promote the energy transition - and which are still needed? Where do we stand today in the energy transition in Europe? What are the most significant challenges? What will future climate-neutral energy systems look like - and can they also function under today's market rules? These are the questions addressed by Die Junge Akademie's 8th ClimateLecture.

After a keynote speech by Johannes Schmidt, representatives of Die Junge Akademie will discuss these issues with him and the event participants. Johannes Schmidt is an Associate Professor in Energy & Resource Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. He researches issues related to the energy transition, particularly the economics of renewable energy, land use of renewable infrastructure and related social and environmental conflicts in Europe and South America. Johannes Schmidt is a member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Although the climate catastrophe is taken much more seriously in political discussions and decision-making processes today than before, the seriousness of the situation is still largely misjudged: Economic interests, complex political power constellations, short-sightedness and adherence to unsustainable lifestyles seem to stand in the way of an adequate response to this epochal challenge.

Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that activists are resorting to drastic means to convince the general public of the urgency of the challenge and to push politicians to act. Examples of this are protest movements such as Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion or, most recently, hunger strikers ahead of the federal elections in September 2021.

But how far can protest actually go in a democracy? What does the term civil disobedience mean? And under what conditions can even radical protest be considered legitimate? The 7th Climate Lecture of Die Junge Akademie addressed the question of the meaning and justification of climate protests.

After an impulse lecture by Robin Celikates, Eva Buddeberg, Hermine Mitter, René Orth, Florian Ziel and other members of Die Junge Akademie discussed this with him and the participants of the event.
Robin Celikates is Professor of Social Philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin and Deputy Director of the Center for Humanities and Social Change. He currently studies civil disobedience, democracy, migration and racism. His publications include "Sozialphilosophie" (C. H. Beck 2017, with Rahel Jaeggi) and "Einführung in die Politische Philosophie" (Reclam 2013, with Stefan Gosepath). He is co-editor of the journal "Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory" and regularly contributes to public debates in newspapers, radio and online.

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent all over the world. In Germany, too, heat records, violent storms and floods are increasingly common. The climate crisis is moving closer and closer to our everyday lives and is now threatening to impact us. Given these alarming facts, swift action would be necessary. However, governments and corporations are moving too slowly to implement the measures required to drastically reduce CO2 emissions, for example.

"We need a new radicalism in political action" - this is one of the central messages of Bernd Ulrich, deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and co-author of "Noch haben wir die Wahl" (together with Luisa Neubauer, Fridays for Future). But why are decisions not being made on what would be necessary to solve the major global challenges of our time, such as the climate crisis or the extinction of species? And how can we achieve the necessary transformation of all areas of our lives and economies?
Representatives of Die Junge Akademie and the Bavarian Network for Climate Research (bayklif) discussed these and other theses with Bernd Ulrich at a joint event. After an impulse interview, Dr. Christian Hof, an alumnus of Die Junge Akademie and bayklif junior research group leader, Prof. Dr. Annette Menzel, professor at the TU Munich and scientific spokesperson of the bayklif network, and Prof. Dr. Linus Mattauch, research group leader at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and member of Die Junge Akademie, discussed Bernd Ulrich's points of view with him.

The Bavarian Climate Research Network bayklif intends to strengthen research on the ecological and social consequences of climate change based in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany. To make its work tangible, the network enters into dialogue with interested people and launches the lecture series "KlimaDiskurse".

The idea for the format came from Die Junge Akademie with its "KlimaLectures" lecture series, which has been running since 2019. Together with Die Junge Akademie, the world's first academy for young scientists, bayklif is celebrating the launch of "KlimaDiskurse".

Changes in the Earth's climate have far-reaching consequences for humans and the environment. In order to stop climate change, it is necessary to have a sound knowledge of its complex causes in order to develop climate targets and ultimately concrete options for action for politics and society. Advisory bodies have long been established to shape and accompany this information process. One of these is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It was founded in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme. The IPCC does not conduct its own research, but synthesises current research results. In this way, it documents what the scientific community agrees on, where there are differences of opinion and where further research is needed. The IPCC's assessment reports serve as information for the international climate protection negotiations and are therefore politically relevant but factually neutral. Since 1988, the IPCC has produced five comprehensive Assessment Reports and several Special Reports on specific topics. The reports of the current sixth cycle are expected in 2021 and 2022.

Dr. Sönke Zaehle is one of three directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry since 2020 and co-author of the 6th Assessment Report of IPCC Working Group I, Chapter 5 (Carbon and other biogeochemical cycles). He studied geoecology at the Technical University of Braunschweig and environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia in the UK and did his PhD at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research/University of Potsdam. After a stopover at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement in Gif-sur-Yvette, he has been working at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry since 2008. His work focuses on the interactions between climate and the global carbon cycle, and the development and evaluation of numerical global ecosystem models.

Among the tipping elements in the climate system, are the ice sheets in Greenland and in the Antarctic, the great upheaval in the Atlantic, and the permafrost soils. These show a threshold behaviour: If they are strained beyond their respective critical limits by man-made climate change, strong and sometimes unstoppable and irreversible changes can occur – they tip over. Even the exceeding of individual tipping points would have environmental impacts that would endanger the livelihood of many people. There is also the risk of a domino-like chain reaction – such a "tipping cascade" would impair the overall stability of our Earth system.

Social tipping elements and tipping interventions are, in turn, mechanisms that could trigger the rapid spread of certain technologies, behavioural patterns and social norms. Some examples of tipping interventions are the abolition of fossil energy subsidies, while promoting decentralized energy production, the construction of greenhouse gas neutral cities, the sale of assets associated with fossil energy, the disclosure of possible moral dimensions of fossil energy, improvements in climate education, and a consistently transparent disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions.

Prof. Ricarda Winkelmann and Prof. Ilona Otto, both researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, will discuss the different dimensions of tipping elements in relation to climate change from their respective professional perspectives.

The digital transformation is in full swing - and it is changing and shaping the world of the 21st century like no other development dynamic. Dealing with and shaping digitisation is thus becoming a core task for the transformation of a globally sustainable development. But what path must digitisation take in order for it to make effective contributions to globally sustainable development? And what is the concrete approach to steering digitisation in the right direction? Dr.-Ing. Stephan Ramesohl reflected on these and other questions and discussed the approaches and possibilities of sustainable digitization with the members of Die Junge Akademie.

Dr.-Ing. Stephan Ramesohl studied industrial engineering at the University (TH) of Karlsruhe and economics at the Université Aix-Marseille II (Maitrîse de Science Economique) and received his doctorate in the Department of Electrical Engineering/Electrical Energy Systems at the University of Paderborn. Since 2019, Ramesohl has been co-head of the research area "Digital Transformation" in the Department of Environmental Services at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH. His work focuses on the challenges, opportunities and policy approaches for a sustainable design of digitisation as well as digital solutions for the industrial transformation towards a climate-friendly and resource-efficient closed loop economy.