Guntram Wolff Opens the New Academic Year at the Brandt School with Welcome Lecture

On Wednesday, October 11, the annual Brandt School Welcome Reception took place to welcome incoming and returning Master of Public Policy students. Brandt School director Prof. Dr. Andreas Goldthau and dean Prof. Dr. Carl-Heinz Witt opened the evening by welcoming students to campus for the new academic year and introducing the new Honorary Professor Dr. Guntram Wolff, director or the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

His lecture focused on climate change as the biggest public policy problem the world is facing today. Dr. Wolff discussed the collective action problem that stands in the way of climate action and the importance of decarbonizing economic activity, which is happening too slowly. The trade-off between economic growth and decarbonization is seen as too great at the moment, and future policy makers will need to find ways to make this less of an obstacle. Dr. Wolff ended the lecture on a hopeful note, imploring policy makers to accelerate green innovation and work on creative solutions to the problem of trade-off between growth and decarbonization.  

Following Dr. Wolff’s lecture, Mafer Caparo and Florencia Otero, representing the Brandt School Student Government, gave some words of advice to incoming students. Concluding the program, vice-president Prof. Dr. Beate Hampe and Dr. Alejandra Ortiz-Ayala awarded the DAAD Prize for outstanding international students to Majlinda Behrami, who is part of the Brandt School class of 2021-2023 before students and faculty got together in a reception.