Nobel Laureates Appeal for Climate Protection

To mark the final day of the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, on Friday, 3 July, over 30 Nobel laureates assembled on Mainau Island on Lake Constance signed a declaration on climate change.  The Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change states "that the nations of the world must take the opportunity at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 to take decisive action to limit future global emissions."  It is expected that a new international agreement on climate protection will be approved at the 21st UN Climate Conference to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

Following on from the latest climate policy resolutions adopted by the G7 states and the environment- and climate-oriented encyclical "Laudato si'" issued by Pope Francis, the Nobel laureates' declaration is another urgent warning of the consequences of climate change.  "If left unchecked, our ever-increasing demand for food, water, and energy will eventually overwhelm the Earth's ability to satisfy humanity's needs, and will lead to wholesale human tragedy," the declaration continues.

The Mainau Declaration 2015 is the result of an initiative on the part of Nobel Science Laureates who took part in the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.  The signatories to the declaration have all been awarded Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine, in physics or in chemistry.

Read more at Nobel Laureates Appeal for Climate Protection