International network for decision makers in climate and environmental policy continues to grow
This year the Federal Environment Ministry (BMUB) will again award twenty climate fellowships. Today, the ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter took leave of the 2016 fellows for a final time. The fellows, from Peru, Madagascar and other countries, do work that addresses the effects of climate change in their home countries. Since 2010, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has granted International Climate Protection Fellowships to young leaders from developing countries and emerging economies. These fellowships are financed with funds from the BMUB’s International Climate Initiative. Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter remarked: “This fellowship programme promotes the creation of an international network of future decision makers in climate and environmental policy. During their stays in Germany, the fellows gain knowledge in various areas in order to reduce the potential impacts of climate change in their home countries or improve their handling.” Fellows of the seventh cohort are expected to arrive in Germany in March 2017. The sixth cohort of fellows included scientists as well as specialists from ministries, government offices and courts; all pursued innovative projects. A mathematician from Madagascar, for example, created the first high quality model of climate change scenarios for her home region. An ecologist from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology studied the cultivation of energy crops on land contaminated by the chemical defoliant Agent Orange in central Viet Nam. During the last year, twenty fellows from Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam completed stays in Germany. The fellowship programme is organised by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with cooperation partners including the Federation of German Industry (BDI), the Centre for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management at TU Dresden, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Berlin Renewables Academy.
Background
The fellowship programme funds up to twenty fellows every year. During a one-year stay in Germany, each fellow carries out a project in the field of climate action or resource conservation at a German university or other appropriate institution. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, methods and techniques. The fellowship programme thus promotes an international network of German and foreign experts, in which members can work together in the long term on issues of climate and environmental policy and on adaptation to climate change.