Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks to Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker about climate change and sustainability, the Wuppertal Institute, science communication, tradable CO2 budgets, and how important initiatives like FridaysForFuture are. more…
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…
Dinner Speech — Bren School Corporate Partners Summit — May 11, 2006 Tomorrow, we shall discuss the science, management and economics of catastrophes. After Katrina, this is one of the hot debates in this country and the world. I seem to observe some kind of a new mindset setting in and do hope that the Bren […] more…
In my role as Chairman of the parliamentary Select Committee on Economic Globalisation I learned with a degree of surprise that the term globalisation was brand new. It began to play a role in public life not earlier than in 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end around 1990 of the Cold War. more…
The global environment is endangered. We are losing some fifty plant and animal species every day. The global climate is beginning to become hotter. Unpredictable changes may hit countries both in the temperate and tropical zones. Theoretically even the sea water table is unstable. 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…
Over 200 years ago, when Adam Smith set about forming his moral ideas of the free market, he made it clear that the wealth of nations requires a strong state, not a weak one! At least three conditions need to be granted by the state: External peace, a reliable legal frame, and a healthy infrastructure that benefits all competitors but would not be paid for by any individual actor. more…
Globalisation is a new phenomenon. The very term “globalisation” appeared in the languages of the world around 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end of the Cold War. We all, I am sure, were glad about many things that happened in this context. more…
When I began preparing this address on the Old and New Europe in their transatlantic relations, I saw with a degree of relief that hundreds of wise men and women had already written or spoken about the subject in recent months. So my task looked like a pretty easy one, just to summarise what wiser people than myself have said. more…