Frauke Eckermann’s scientific contributions

The livelihoods of the people in Europe and globally are at risk because of the still increasing deterioration of our environment. As the recent Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) 1 outlines, most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their detailed targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development2 are in danger of being missed, including the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change3. Some of them even show negative long-term trends including some closely connected to environmental themes, eg the goals on water (SDG 6), sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), climate (SDG 13) and life on land (SDG 14) and below water (SDG 15). Also, many SDGs addressing the social dimension of sustainability show no significant positive trends. The GSDR thus stresses the need to jointly address these challenges across the SDGs, and not handle them separately in sectoral approaches. The European Union (EU), although in an excellent position to become a front-runner with respect to SDG implementation, also lacks behind in the implementation of many SDGs to reach the 2030 targets4. The report of Eurostat on the SDGs in Europe5, a report by the European Court of Auditors6, the comment of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) 7 and the State of the Environment Report 2019 of the European Environment Agency8 showcase the needs for further actions–in implementing activities to reach the SDGs in general, but also in the ways this implementation is mainstreamed across policy sectors and the financing of the EU.

In order to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut at least by half of 1990s levels by the middle of the century. At the same time industrialised countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 percent by 2050. In the context of international negotiations on a new, post-2012 climate treaty, science strongly indicates that any further delay in appropriate global mitigation efforts will increase the pressure towards future mitigation measures. Industrialised countries need to lead the way in climate policy by developing and implementing strategies to decarbonise emission-intensive sectors.