Subprojects
The objectives of PRACC are pursued by four closely cooperating subprojects:
Ethical Analysis
The complexity of the phenomenon of climate change presents us not only with political, technical and economic challenges, but also with enormous ethical ones. Greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for a very long time and also influence the climatic conditions for humans in the distant future. Climate change is largely caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and has predominantly negative consequences for humans, animals and plants. This immediately raises the question of what responsibility current generations have for future generations. As a result, how society deals with climate change also becomes a problem of intergenerational justice.
The ethical subproject is mainly concerned with two aspects. The first aspect deals with the relationship between intergenerational justice and freedom in the context of climate change. On the one hand, this involves defining a normative framework: can the restrictions on the individual freedom of people living today be weighed against the well-being of younger people living today and that of people living in the future? After all, it is to be expected that the lifestyle of many people today will drastically restrict the living conditions of future generations due to high emissions and the increasing destruction of natural areas. On the other hand, questions of distributive justice will also be discussed, which poses difficult problems due to its global, temporal, historical and political dimensions. Who is responsible for the costs of curbing emissions, given the complex political and historical dimension that has led to the power structures that could be reinforced by climate change?
The second aspect of the ethical subproject focuses on practical questions that arise at the interface of climate ethics, bioeconomy and biodiversity. Due to its complex and far-reaching effects on humans, the loss of biodiversity is often ignored despite its undisputed moral relevance. In order to close this gap, the ethical questions of why exactly biodiversity should be conserved and how this conservation should be implemented will be examined.
Legal Analysis
The so-called “climate decision” of the Federal Constitutional Court (March 24, 2021) has made it clear that the protection of people's civil liberties goes beyond the present and also extends into the future. This “intertemporal safeguarding of freedom” of fundamental rights, as described by the Federal Constitutional Court, raises the question of the relationship between the civil liberties of present and future generations.
The legal subproject undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the construct of the intertemporal safeguarding of freedom and provides an overview of the legal challenges. This also includes an in-depth analysis of the relationship between Article 2(2) (freedom of the person) and Article 20a of the Basic Law (responsibility for future generations), particularly with regard to the interdependence between subjective rights and general state objectives. In addition, the impairment of future freedom is also examined as a legal basis for the restriction of individual rights of people living today and political decisions.
The results obtained in this way can also be transferred to specific fields of application of an intergenerational justice discourse. This applies above all to the legal framework with regard to the protection of biodiversity. The fact that a considerable part of the genetic resources of the countries of origin were exported some time ago under completely different legal and geopolitical conditions has a decisive influence on today’s so-called North-South conflict. The central considerations of justice are reflected, for example, in the application of the Nagoya Protocol, in particular in the question of the extension of biodiversity law to so-called Digital Sequence Information (DSI) or also with regard to the protection status of traditional indigenous knowledge. The legal subproject will therefore also provide considerable insights about specific areas of application – namely biodiversity law.
Bioeconomic Analysis
A sustainable form of economic activity that makes a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and thus combating climate change requires a move away from a fossil fuel-based economy. Bioeconomy uses biological resources and processes and can thus contribute to sustainable development. Against this background, the bioeconomy subproject deals with four aspects of the bioeconomy that are of particular relevance in the context of intergenerational justice.
The first aspect relates to the intensity of the use of natural resources. It must be taken into account that excessive consumption of resources by current generations to provide products (food, animal feed, materials, chemicals, energy) limits the availability of natural resources for future generations. At the same time, current use must meet the needs of current generations.
The second aspect concerns our consumer behaviour, as it will not be easy to simply replace fossil-based consumption with bio-based consumption. One example is the more efficient use of plant biomass in vegetarian and vegan diets compared to today’s meat-heavy diets in Western countries. A similar dimension is the demand for less food waste in production and consumption through improved bioeconomic practices and consumer behaviour.
The third aspect is that knowledge production about sustainable bioeconomy options in the future is a task for today’s generations, which – if not properly developed and supported – will limit the knowledge base of future generations to act on a sound scientific basis.
The fourth aspect is the stewardship of nature. This future use option makes natural resources such as natural genetic diversity available for future generations. This utility-oriented aspect complements and coincides with the general views on the richness of biodiversity for nature conservation and ecosystem services.
Biodiversity Analysis
This subproject will describe the development of regional biodiversity over the last 200 years, with particular emphasis on the normative framework. Based on the current state of knowledge about biodiversity in the Bonn/Rhine-Sieg region, it will be shown to what extent components of the regional biodiversity defined here have shifted, what its current state is and what probable developments can be modelled under the conditions of climate change. On this basis, a viable normative definition of biodiversity in the specific context of intergenerational justice will be examined, taking into account its divergent aspects.
The most important aspects of biodiversity in the context of intergenerational justice can be divided into three categories, which form the starting point of the studies: Functional Biodiversity, Stewardship Biodiversity and Perceived Biodiversity. These categories provide a direct reference point for a qualified assessment of trends.
Functional biodiversity refers to the complement of species and habitats that maintains the functionality, integration and services of ecosystems. This can be examined based on plant genetic resources. Stewardship biodiversity, which expresses a form of trusteeship for biodiversity, can be examined by looking at trends in so-called “Verantwortungsarten” (“stewardship species”) and “geschützte Lebensräume” (“protected habitats”). Finally, perceived biodiversity – the most tangible and striking manifestations of biodiversity – can be studied by examining, for example, trends in the diversity and abundance of a selected group of organisms that enjoy particular attention from the public (e.g. birds and forests). Regional biodiversity will be described and modelled under climate change scenarios, identifying key trends, especially for protected habitats and species, plant genetic resources and perceived biodiversity.