{"id":56753,"date":"2023-10-29T09:56:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T08:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dbu.de\/?post_type=news&p=56753"},"modified":"2023-10-29T09:58:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T08:58:08","slug":"clear-direction-for-climate-protection","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.dbu.de\/en\/news\/clear-direction-for-climate-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Clear Direction for Climate Protection\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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L\u00fcbeck\/Osnabr\u00fcck. The German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU \u2013 Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt), based in Osnabr\u00fcck, will confer this year\u2019s German Environmental Award<\/a> today (Sunday) in L\u00fcbeck. The award is worth a total of 500,000 euros and is one of the most lucrative environmental awards in Europe. The award will be presented by German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to climate scientist Professor Friederike Otto and wood construction pioneer Dagmar Fritz-Kramer. Despite ongoing devastating wars such as those in Ukraine and the Middle East, \u2018the two award winners inspire us not to give up and to continue working towards species conservation and environmental protection,\u2019 said Professor Kai Niebert, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the DBU, and DBU Secretary General Alexander Bonde. Having a \u2018clear direction for climate protection\u2019 is now more vital than ever. The event will be moderated by Tatjana Ge\u00dfler and will be streamed live at www.dbu.de\/live<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danger for the ice shelf and impending climate tipping points<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent studies have confirmed the call to action issued by Niebert and Bonde. For example, a study by the British Antarctic Survey concluded that the ice shelf in the Amundsen Sea in the western Antarctic could melt away completely \u2013 even if the 1.5-degree target is achieved. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris in 2015, the 200 nations involved agreed to limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. A United Nations report has also warned of irreversible climate tipping points. Key risks cited \u2013 besides glacier melt \u2013 include species extinction, droughts, water shortages and space debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Award winners: Wood construction pioneer Dagmar Fritz-Kramer (second from left) and climate scientist Friederike Otto are this year\u2019s recipients of the DBU\u2019s German Environmental Award. \u00a9 Peter Himsel | DBU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Niebert: Essential to keep moving on sustainability and transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonde reissued his plea to view the climate and biodiversity crises \u2018as a joint mission\u2019. He said: \u201cThe two are inextricably linked.\u2019 The DBU Secretary General renewed his call from the previous day at a DBU symposium on the subject: \u2018An environmentally friendly economy must become the standard.\u2019 Bonde: \u2018Baufritz managing director Dagmar Fritz-Kramer continues to demonstrate what the business world can achieve.\u2019 In view of the wars raging around the world, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the DBU warned \u2018that we should not succumb to panic and fear\u2019. Niebert: \u2018The road to sustainability and transformation of the economy and society is not a fair-weather policy. We cannot afford to let up here and must still be in a position to act even in times of great crisis.\u2019 Otto’s work is \u2018of vital importance\u2019 here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonde: Award winners are a true inspiration and motivation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bonde, Friederike Otto and Dagmar Fritz-Kramer are a \u2018true inspiration and motivation for us to learn from the impacts of global warming, which are already evident today, and to continue implementing environmental and resource protection measures\u2019. Friederike Otto from Imperial College London<\/em><\/a> is an \u2018outstanding climate scientist and has made a significant contribution to attribution science\u2019. The discipline, also known as attribution research, investigates the link between climate change and weather. For example, \u2018whether there are connections between climate change and extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and heavy rainfall. In 2015, the now 41-year-old climate scientist founded the World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative<\/em><\/a> together with her Dutch colleague Professor Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, who has since passed away, and played a leading role in examining the attribution of extreme weather events to human-caused climate change. There are three key parts to Otto\u2019s work: the rapid publication of sound scientific knowledge regarding the possible connections between global climate change and regional extreme weather; research into the causes, as well as presentation of the local impacts of the global climate crisis; and proposals for effective adaptation measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction sector has a key role to play in climate neutrality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dagmar Fritz-Kramer is the managing director of the family company Bau-Fritz GmbH & Co. KG<\/a>, based in the Allg\u00e4u region of Germany and known as Baufritz for short. Bonde describes her as a \u2018source of ideas for new approaches in the construction sector\u2019. Her company is carrying out \u2018outstanding pioneering work\u2019 and has, for decades, been demonstrating how prefabricated timber construction in houses, apartments and renovation projects can serve to protect the climate and environment. Baufritz is a driving force of industry and the changes shaping the construction sector, while wood<\/a> is an \u2018excellent means of climate protection, as it stores large amounts of carbon and thus prevents the formation of climate-damaging carbon dioxide\u2019. The construction sector has a key role to play if Germany is to become climate neutral by 2045 as planned. It causes around 40 per cent of the approximately 746 million tonnes of emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) in Germany each year. Baufritz says that it processes mainly \u2018domestic spruce wood on its doorstep\u2019 in cooperation with sawmills and planing mills within a 120-kilometre radius. It creates around 143,000 square metres of space out of almost 11,900 cubic metres of material each year \u2013 from walls and roofs to ceilings. Each Baufritz building corresponds to CO2<\/sub> savings of around 50 tonnes, with total savings of approximately 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Renovating the building shell of a house from the 1950s alone can reduce the consumption of heating energy by around 75 per cent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional craft business and internationally renowned climate scientist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dagmar Fritz-Kramer is a qualified engineer and has been a managing partner of the family business since 2004. The company was founded in 1896 and is now in its fourth generation<\/a>. Climate scientist Friederike Otto is one of the lead authors of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n