Professor Dr Jürgen Scheffran (University of Hamburg, Institute of Geography) opens the lecture series "Streitbar - Kontroversen der Demokratie" of the Young Academy Greifswald

Borders and crises in the existing world order are creating a polycrisis of associated risks with growing environmental pollution, violent conflicts, displacement and military expenditure. Geopolitical rivalries over territories, resources and energy jeopardise the earth's security structure, as do species extinction, climate change and other planetary boundaries. Positive tipping points can be used to synergise solutions in order to avoid exacerbating problems through negative tipping points. Instead of a turning point in favour of armament and the ability to wage war, we need a turning point in favour of a European and global peace order that shows ways out of the spiral of violence. The socio-ecological transformation to preserve planetary boundaries goes hand in hand with a peaceful conflict transformation towards common security, diplomacy, arms control and disarmament. Sustainable peacebuilding requires co-operative governance mechanisms involving actors in the Global South and civil society. The Sustainable Development Goals are a basis for shaping the shared habitability (co-habitation) of the earth by using the available environmental space sustainably and equitably.

Jürgen Scheffran is Professor of Integrative Geography (emer.) at the University of Hamburg and head of the Climate Change and Security research group at the Centre for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) and the Climate Cluster of Excellence. In addition to his involvement in scientific organisations, he has worked for the United Nations, the Office of Technology Assessment of the German Bundestag and the Federal Government's Expert Commission on the Causes of Flight. His research focusses on: Climate security, environmental migration and resource conflicts; water-food-energy nexus and urban-rural-coastal nexus; sustainability and complex systems; technology assessment,

Moderation: Fiedje Moritz B. Sc.