Soon you will be able to watch the streamed debate The European Green Deal: Bavarian and Czech perspectives in the light of corona which took place on September 24 at 17:00. Stay tuned!
European minds and hearts have been set upon two key matters in 2020: the reinvigorated climate agenda alongside the COVID-19 pandemic with its both immediate and lasting impacts on our economies and societies. Prominent public figures have repeatedly stated that resolving the public health crisis must go hand in hand with uncovering pathways out of the climate crisis. How do the Czech Republic and Bavaria, respectively, respond to this? Are they ready and willing to do what it takes to reduce emissions in line with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by mid-century, fully utilizing the European Green Deal? What new avenues for mutual cooperation are opening up? And how can different stakeholders such as governments, businesses, scientists, and NGOs work efficiently towards improving the resilience of our communities and institutions to both present and future crises?
We are please to welcome the following speakers:
Anna Kárníková, Director of Hnutí DUHA – Friends of the Earth Czech Republic
Miranda Schreurs, Chair of Energy and Environmental Policy, Hochschule für Politik München at the Technical University of Munich
Petr Kalaš, Chief Advisor of the Minister, Ministry of the Environment of the CR
Michael Horsch, CEO of HORSCH Maschinen GmbH
The discussion will be hosted by Tomáš Jungwirth, Head of Climate Team, Association for International Affairs.
More information about the speakers:
Anna Kárníková has been the director of the Hnutí DUHA (the Rainbow Movement) – Friends of the Earth Czech Republic since September 2019. She took over the management of this well-known Czech ecological non-profit organization on the 30th birthday of this organization. Anna took over the leadership of the Hnutí DUHA in the intensive phase of the Save the Forests campaign, but the organization agenda has grown much broader since then and now includes implementing changes in energy, waste management and wildlife protection. Hnutí DUHA supports almost 7,000 donors and regularly activates tens of thousands of people to support its proposals for a cleaner and smarter economy and a healthier landscape. Anna also worked as the head of the Center for Transport and Energy and as the director of the Department for Sustainable Development at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. She studied European Studies at the Charles University in Prague and Environmental Policy at The London School of Economics.
Miranda Schreurs main research areas are in international and comparative climate policy, environmental politics, and low-carbon energy transitions. She is involved in projects examining the energy transitions in Germany and Japan; climate policies of Europe, the United States, and China; and the politics of high-level radioactive waste disposal. In 2011 Schreurs was appointed by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a member of the German Ethics Commission on a Safe Energy Supply. From 2008 until 2016 she served as a member of the German Advisory Council on the Environment and is vice-chair of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils. Schreurs has her BA and MA from the University of Washington and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She has researched and taught at various Japanese universities and for three years researched at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University supported by a grant awarded by the MacArthur Foundation. She was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park before becoming director of the Environmental Policy Research Center and Professor of Comparative Politics at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2007.
Petr Jan Kalaš is a Czech-Swiss expert in the field of environment, energy and industrial planning and a former Czech Minister of the Environment. He is a co-founder and vice-president of the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development. He studied Economics and Power Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 1968 he emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Trade from 1986 to 1994. He was responsible for cooperation with the states of Central and Eastern Europe. He later worked for the World Bank, on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2004, he has worked as a Consultant for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). He was Minister of the Environment from September of 2006 until January of 2007. He also acted as an Adviser to Prime Ministers Topolánek, Fischer and Nečas. He is currently the Chief Adviser to the Minister of the Environment Richard Brabec.
Michael Horsch, b. 1959, is the founder of HORSCH Maschinen GmbH. In 1979, he left for the United States with the intention of establishing his own farm there. In 1981, he returned to Germany and developed his first machine: a no-till seed drill. In 1984, together with his uncle Walter Horsch, he founded HORSCH Maschinen GmbH. After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opening of new markets in Eastern Europe, the company has grown rapidly since 1990. HORSCH Maschinen GmbH is still one of the fastest-growing companies in the field of agricultural technology. The company has three production plants in Germany, in addition to which it is represented in Brazil, China, Russia and the United States. The company is run by Michael Horsch together with his brother Philippe and his wife Cornelia. In cooperation with his brothers, he also runs several farms in East Germany and the Czech Republic. The company “AgroVation” in the Czech Kněžmost, for example, conducts various experiments to prepare farmers for future challenges.
Tomáš Jungwirth is a Research Fellow of AMO Research Center where he serves as head of the climate team. He focuses on challenges related to climate change, migration and asylum, and also follows the developments in the Western Balkans. He graduated from law at Charles University in Prague, and then went on to study Human Rights and Democratization in Sarajevo and Bologna. Recently, he spent six months on a fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, dealing intensively with climate mitigation and adaptation in the transnational context. Tomáš is also project coordinator in Centre for Transport and Energy. In the past, he worked as a Policy Officer in the Czech Migration Consortium, an analyst in a political party, manager of election campaigns or as a high-school teacher.
The CGYPP is initiated and financed by the Czech-German Fund for the Future.