For the landmark Paris Agreement in which governments worldwide committed themselves at limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, “Ottmar Edenhofer laid the scientific foundation,” said Patricia Espinosa who held the laudation for the award. A former Foreign Minister of Mexico, she is today head of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). “Without his work in the IPCC, the Agreement might not have been possible,” said Espinosa. Edenhofer led the Working Group on ‘Mitigation’ for the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “He is more than a man of our time, he is a man of our future,” said Espinosa.
“We need a new idea of progress,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx in his speech, emphasizing that Edenhofer is very actively contributing to the development of such a science-based and value-driven idea. The concept of the atmosphere as a common good that should not be overused by some as a waste dump for greenhouse gases made its way into Pope Francis’ Encyclical ‘Laudato Sí’, Marx pointed out. In fact the Guardini Prize was awarded to Edenhofer not least because of his advice to the Pope, said Academy Director Florian Schuller. Bavaria’s Minister for the Environment also praised Edenhofer for his tireless work.
Edenhofer himself told the audience that what he experienced when working for a Christian relief organization in the war in Bosnia and Croatia is one key for his current work on climate change mitigation. “The varnish of civilization is thin,” he said. Climate impacts such as yield losses or droughts can fuel smoldering conflicts in some regions that might eventually explode. Edenhofer called for strengthening multilateralism, not nationalism. And in the face of migration, he said, especially Christians should remember the fundamental value of preserving human dignity.
Past winners of the Guardini Prize include the social ethicist and economic philosopher Oswald von Nell-Breuning, Nobel Prize laureate in physics Werner Heisenberg, former German Constitutional Court judge Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, the composer Carl Orff, the theologian Karl Rahner, and former German Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker.
Weblink to previous PIK news: https://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/consulted-by-the-pope-catholic-academy-of-bavaria-honours-climate-economist-edenhofer
Weblink to Guardini Prize: https://www.kath-akademie-bayern.de/aktuelle-mitteilung/items/ottmar-edenhofer-ausgezeichnet.html
Weblink to video of Edenhofer speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_LsUQutsM
