Accelerating the site selection process – what can be learnt from oth-er environmental policy areas?
Main Session Organizers:
Anne Eckhardt,
Ulrich Smeddinck
In recent decades, the insight that a society must take sufficient time to solve its ,wicked problems’ has become increasingly tolerated in science and politics. In many environmentally relevant areas, however, time is at present becoming a scarce resource. The effects of climate change are making themselves more and more noticeable. The transformation of the energy system is urgently needed to ensure climate protection and security of supply. The security policy situation requires nations worldwide to be rapidly prepared for new threats. A large number of infrastructures in Germany need to be renewed to ensure their continued functionality.
Similarly, time is increasingly proving to be a key safety factor in the selection of a site for a repository for high-level radioactive waste. In the workshop, we would like to shed light on how the factor time is discussed in different environmentally relevant areas, what arguments speak for or against acceleration and what trade-offs are made in discussions about time. How should an acceleration be set up that avoids falling back into outdated, e.g. ,expertocratic’, attitudes and profits from new opportunities, such as scientific and technological progress or new value systems of younger generations?
The workshop will start with two keynote speeches, integrating legal, political and technological aspects. The speakers are
• Dr. Christian Schaffner, Executive Director of the Energy Science Center (ESC), ETH Zurich and
• Kalina Peneva-Gädeke, Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Klimaschutz, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Berlin/Referat G I 3.
Subsequently, the workshop participants will discuss the extent to which the considerations presented can and should be transferred to the site selection process. Throughout the workshop, solution-orientated approaches from transdisciplinary research will be applied.
Note: As legal discussions are still predominantly held in the respective national language, this workshop will be held in German.
15:50–16:20
Welcome and interactive start into the program of the workshops
16:20–16:50
Introduction and impulse talks
Coffee break
17:25–18:25
Interactive work and final discussion
Speakers
- Christian Schaffner
- Kalina Peneva-Gädeke, Germany