Tasks and Focus of the Institute

The epochal task of shaping the law, in which the findings of the most diverse disciplines must be incorporated, requires legal support: this not only raises questions of coherence and compatibility of the necessary mix of instruments with, for example, international law, Union law and constitutional law, but also requires cross-border legal analyses, i.e. comparative legal analyses, as well as effective design in the multi-level legal system (municipal, state, federal and EU levels).

In detail, the following legal aspects must be taken into account:

• the design of the energy transition, in particular the phase-out of coal-fired power generation and the entry into hydrogen energy production and storage, the design of the infrastructure, in particular wind energy and the expansion of pipelines and (transmission) networks on land and at sea
• questions of public information and participation, active sponsorship, resonance and acceptance, as well as the resolution of internal ecological conflicts (climate protection versus species and health protection),
• the linking and interlinking health and environmental systems to ensure long-term sustainable public health and to avoid negative interdependencies between environmental and health protection, and
• the use of digital and artificial intelligence-based technologies, e.g. in the area of processes and control, especially monitoring, to ensure the necessary transformation towards sustainability.

Another focus of the Institute is scientific policy advice. Professor Dr. Schlacke is Co-Chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and advises the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) as Chair of the steering committee of the "Science Platform Climate Protection". She is also a member of the Permanent Senate Commission of the German Research Foundation on Fundamental Issues of Biological Diversity (SKBV), the Kopernikus Project Ariadne, and Vice Chair of the Society for Environmental Law (GfU).