On the occasion of the 75th birthday of Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker on June 25, 2014, the following book has been published in English: Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (Ed.): Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker: A Pioneer on Environmental, Climate and Energy Policies – Presented by Uwe Schneidewind, Pioneers in Science and Practice, vol. 28 […] more…
At the end of January I had the honour of being invited by the United Nations Association of Germany to give a short speech at a dinner with the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon in Berlin. more…
This title contrasts with the preoccupation with labour productivity during the last 200 years of technological progress. Labour productivity has been the melody of the first Industrial Revolution. It increased twentyfold or more during those 200 years. This has been the basis of prosperity and it is the main theme of China’s stunning economic progress. more…
The subtitle of the report of the World Commission for the Social Dimension of Globalization, which you were involved in, is “Creating opportunities for all”. It also mentions the role of companies and of the UN Global Compact, which Bosch also joined in 2004. more…
We live in a finite world. Ultimately, there is no way around production and consumption patterns that are sustainable. Ultimately, customers, engineers, managers and politicians will show a strict priority for the respect of nature and the environment. more…
The answer to this question should be yes and no. Yes, we are closer than ten years ago. During all of he 1990s, an irritatingly optimistic mindset was dominating the world. The very expression of ‘saving the planet’ would not have been politically correct in these days, because it sounds ‘pessimistic’. more…
I shall briefly offer some unconventional views on Japan and then move on to discuss the megatrend of globalisation which I see as the main reason for the massive neglect of the environment. I shall conclude with an attempt at establishing a new sense of direction for technology, civilisation and investments. more…
Speech by Ernst von Weizsäcker, M. P., Athens, 9 November 2002 Let me at the outset distinguish two different tasks of environmental policy. One is pollution control which is predominantly a local and a national activity. The first twenty years of environmental policy in advanced industrial countries were almost exclusively devoted to pollution control and […] more…
Let me at the outset distinguish two different tasks of environmental policy. One is pollution control which is predominantly a local and a national activity. The other task of environmental policy relates to global and long-term challenges such as climate change, biodiversity losses and unsustainable lifestyles. Prices can work for the environment in both arenas. more…
We all agree that a lot more economic wealth is needed for six billion people let alone nine billion people that we expect to live on earth by the mid of the century. Doubling wealth is the least, I suggest, what we should aim at. On the other hand, we are already now overexploiting the earth. It is fair to say that we should reduce the consumption of natural resources by roughly a factor of two. more…