9th German-Brazilian Dialogue: a discussion of the future of the urban ecosystem

The event will discuss how cities, which are both the cause and the victims of climate change, can create a sustainable agenda for mitigating the adverse circumstances that creates these changes in the environment. To that end, economists, engineers, legal counsel, researchers, and educators from Brazil and Germany will present analyses of studies, trends, and forecasts of climate impacts on urban ecosystems.

Among prominent German speakers of the 9th Dialogue are the oceanographer and Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam Stefan Rahmstorf, considered to be one of the world’s current top ten climatologists by the Financial Times, and Professor of public and environmental law of the University of Münster (WWU) Sabine Schlacke, Vice President of the Global Climate Change Scientific Board of the German Government (WBGU).

Among prominent Brazilian participants are professor Marcos Buckeridge, Director of the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo (USP) and Coordinator of the USP Global Cities study, and Professor Leila da Costa Ferreira, representative of Campinas State University (UNICAMP) on the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Global Challenges – Adapting to Climate Change. The program with all topics and dates can be found attached.

At the centre of the discussions of the 9th Dialogue, subjects such as governance, consequences of global warming for coastal cities, effects of the pandemic, science and technology, and their usage for monitoring, mitigating, and adapting to climate change will be examined. Some of the panel discussions will deal with current projects as UNICAMP’s Sustainable Campus and the Water-Food-Energy Nexus of the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

One of the goals of the encounter is to foster greater cooperation between Brazil and Germany in research on the relationship between cities and the climate, as well as to seek new solutions. Binational scientific cooperation between researchers will also be central to the online format.

Marcio Weichert, Coordinator of DWIH São Paulo, points out the opportunities presented by the online format: “Those who are interested in the Dialogue will be able to send questions via chat and during the online networking sessions, making it possible for researchers from across Brazil to interact with our speakers.” Along the same line, DWIH São Paulo’s Director Jochen Hellmann emphasises the potential of the interactions. “One thing everyone can be sure of: the confirmed topics and speakers guarantee a wealth of discussion, which our top- level scientific committe has worked on for over a year.” The Adjunct Coordinator of FAPESP, Euclides Mesquita, states “the German-Brazilian Dialogue has a solid history of successful events that provide significant incentives to dialogue and collaboration between researchers from Germany and Brazil.”

This event is free of charge and will be held from May 17^th to 20^th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Brazil (2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Germany) and will be broadcast on Youtube (http://bit.ly/german-brazilian-dialogue). Those who are interested in the event and the networking sessions must register at: https://bit.ly/2P3fUx4. For more information regarding topics and speakers, see the event’s page: https://bit.ly/3aM7Qsl.

The webinar is presented in a partnership between German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Support also comes from the German-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry of São Paulo (AHK São Paulo), Center of German and European Studies (CDEA), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Goethe- Institut São Paulo, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the Klimapolis Laboratory, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), the Mecila Centre (Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America), the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), and the Association of Brazilian- German Engineers (VDI Brazil).