Global environmental politics is in crisis. Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have been breached, and global warming is close to the dangerous threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Heat waves in Europe and devastating floods in Nepal are early warnings of a planetary emergency that our politics are failing to address. In 2025, the global negotiations for a plastics treaty ended without result, and the United Nations climate negotiations could not agree on a roadmap to phase

Opening speech prepared for the 2026 World Sustainable Development Summit‘s plenary session ‘Multilateralism as a Force for Hope and Impact’, 26 February, Taj Palace, New Delhi Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues and Friends, It is a special honour to address you all at the 2026 World Sustainable Development Summit. My congratulations to TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute, for the remarkable success in sustaining and growing this important global event seri

In 2025, I published the history of my family — from 1560 until 1945, over twelve generations — as a book with Wallstein Press (“Von Armut und Aufstieg: Die Geschichte einer Familie über vier Jahrhunderte” ). More information is on the publisher’s website . Since many friends, family and colleagues do not read German, I translate parts of the introductory chapter into English here. CHAPTER 1—INTRODUCTION Germany’s history we find in two forms. For one, there is the hist

The 6th United Nations Environment Assembly, held in February 2024 in Nairobi, will be remembered as one of the first intense...