13/08/2024 | In collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen, ZMT is happy to welcome Prof. Dr. Manfred Lenzen, Professor of Sustainability Research at the University of Sydney, to Bremen. Manfred Lenzen is an internationally renowned climate researcher with a focus on the transformation towards sustainable use of energy and materials. He is Professor of Sustainability Research at the School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia.
ZMT cordially invites you to his talk on "Modeling affluence and equity in the context of climate change" (Abstract below)
WHEN: Wednesday, September 4, 2024 | Doors open at 17:00 | Talk starts at 17:30
WHERE: Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), large seminar room
If like to join please contact Andrea Daschner at
We look forward to welcoming to an evening of inspiring conversations and discussions.
About Manfred Lenzen:
Manfred Lenzen is Professor of Sustainability Research with the ISA team in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. He has a PhD in Physics and experience in renewable energy technologies, life-cycle assessment, and carbon footprinting. His current research interests focus on the link between environmental/resource impacts and international trade. He currently leads the development of cloud-based collaborative-research platforms for building large-scale global economic-environmental models that enable environmental impact analysis across global supply-chain networks.
Talk "Modeling affluence and equity in the context of climate change"
In order to mitigate climate change, the majority of countries rely on increasingly speculative high energy-GDP decoupling, large-scale carbon dioxide removal and large-scale and high-speed renewable energy transformation. Similarly, 1.5 °C scenarios reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) rely on combinations of controversial negative emissions and unprecedented technological change, while assuming continued growth in gross domestic product (GDP). Thus far, the integrated assessment modelling community and the IPCC have neglected to consider degrowth scenarios, where economic output declines due to stringent climate mitigation. Hence, the potential of degrowth to avoid reliance on negative emissions and speculative rates of technological change remains unexplored. This gap is significant, as the magnitude of countries' greenhouse gas emissions is closely tied to their level of affluence. Similarly, changes in emissions are largely driven by per-capita consumption. In unison, these findings point to lifestyle changes as needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. However, there are doubts regarding political feasibility and individual capability of such lifestyle changes, as the required mitigation trajectories become increasingly stringent.
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