Climate matters in 2023

From the new IPCC report to the 28th Climate Change Conference, there are plenty of important issues and events that climate activists should keep in mind in the year ahead.

New IPCC Synthesis Report

The sixth Synthesis Report by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is to be issued next spring. The IPCC has been issuing reports on climate change at regular intervals since 1990. The reports consist of these parts: The Physical Science Basis; Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability; Mitigation of Climate Change. The AR6 Synthesis Report (AR stands for Assessment Report) will combine the findings from the reports by the three working groups. You can find out more about the latest reports here:

German Environment Agency report on German emissions

Every year in March, the German Environment Agency issues its report on trends in Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions. The compiled data show that emissions rose again from 2020 to 2021. This can be attributed to the extraordinary situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the report, there is still a lot to be done if Germany is to reach climate neutrality. Click below for more on the current status of German emissions and an interview with the president of the German Environment Agency (UBA):

Negotiations for plastics treaty

In March 2022, the international community resolved in Kenya to initiate a globally binding plastics treaty in the next two years. In late November and early December 2022, the negotiators met with representatives of civil society and the scientific community in Uruguay for the first session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee. The negotiations are set to continue in Paris in May 2023. You can read more about the plastics treaty's importance for the climate here:

European Soil Health Law

The German government is committed to better soil protection. A Europe-wide law on soil health, the Soil Health Law, is slated for adoption in 2023. Will the law pass, and if it does, just what will it say, for example about carbon sequestration in soils and trade in certificates for that? You can find out more about soil’s importance for the climate here:

Climate and soil fact sheet >
Video: What life in the soil can do for us > (in German with English subtitles)

Second anniversary of Ahr Valley flood

The second anniversary of one of Germany’s worst climate disasters will be in July. The Ahr Valley flood killed many people and cost even more everything they owned. While reconstruction continues, work on improvements to early warning systems and precautionary measures is in progress because if one thing is clear, it is that there will be more and more such extreme weather events as climate change intensifies. You can find out more about the flood and its aftermath here:

Helmholtz focus topic: One year after the flood >

New climate lawsuits

There have been numerous climate-related lawsuits in recent years, such as the still-pending suit by the Peruvian Saúl Luciano Lliuya against energy conglomerate RWE or the successful suit by Urgenda, an environmental organization, against the Dutch government. Such claims, for example a 2021 constitutional complaint, have also met with success in Germany. Now more cases are in the queue. Will the European Court of Human Rights hear the case brought by six young people from Portugal against 33 governments, and will the matter end up before the UN’s International Court of Justice? Read here to find out more:

Fairness and the right to a future >

The 28th Climate Change Conference

This time, the UN Climate Change Conference will take place in Dubai. Specialists call it COP28 because it will be the 28th conference of the parties to the agreement: “Conference of the Parties.” The conference will begin on November 30 and last until December 12. For more about the status of the COP27 negotiations in Egypt in 2022 and a timeline of the most important COPs, click here: