16. International Perspectives

It is unclear whether politicians in Europe and other regions of the world will adopt timely measures for comprehensive climate protection, and whether science will provide a sufficient number of people with the information, facts and comprehensible analyses in time for there to be a critically intensive global climate discussion. In this context, it must be expected that climate protection policy will not always be at the top of people’s priority list for attention anyway: with each recession and crisis, income and employment interests tend to dominate the interests of individuals. It is only during economic upswings that many people become more interested in issues such as regional integration or (international) climate protection. Without sufficient and timely climate protection, however, serious international economic crises can occur. For this reason, the electorate’s temporary disregard for climate protection policy is above all a tribute to traditional thinking—to a linear historical understanding of the problems of economic development. International perspectives on climate protection have been little addressed so far—here, new aspects are now introduced into the debate, and G20 perspectives are also discussed.