G7 Climate Club could reach ‘big deal’ on climate and health: German government adviser

Germany is home to some of the world’s leading healthcare companies…

Yes, Germany has a very interesting role to play with the presidency of the G7. I think there are great opportunities for health and climate advocates, but they are unlikely to emerge on their own within the policymaking community, because these ministerial silos exist. There is as much room for bottom-up initiatives as we have in the Global Solutions Initiative. We spend all of our time thinking about how to solve global problems for the public good, and we have the freedom to think beyond government silos.

One of the reasons why the German government Grant us the mandate to lead Operation T7 Together with the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) as they hope we can offer the same structure to T7 as we did to T20 and then advise both G7 and G20 from a common source. Then these two societies, which often go in different directions, can cooperate.

You’ve talked about the need for a bottom-up climate effort. However, all we know about the plans of the German G7 presidency are big top-down ideas, such as an international climate club with a common land price for carbon dioxide or bilateral climate partnerships. Are all these suggestions useless?

No, you definitely need them. To get what we need in climate policy, it is imperative that the peoples of the world cooperate. We need to make sure that, in general, we do not exceed our limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, we do not have a system that does this. Our NDCs are often overlooked. If you don’t have a mechanism whereby countries reliably and verifiably commit to keeping their promises, you’ll never make it.

The G7 presidency changes every year, leaving little room for consistency. Can they continue to play an important role in climate policy?

One of the things that we would like to achieve during the German Presidency is the constant measurement of the well-being of societies year after year, not only in terms of GDP, but also in terms of relevant environmental and social indicators. we have developed dashboard which can be used to measure progress within the G7 or G20, rather than just economic growth. This would provide a consistent means of transition from one presidency to the next. Having a group of experts like ours working long-term to advise these groups can be a useful way of keeping the flames burning.

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