FONA Strategy
With the FONA strategy published at the end of 2020, the BMBF has aligned its research funding for climate protection and greater sustainability with the United Nations' 2030 Agenda. The FONA Strategy focuses on the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and formulates three strategic goals to which research can make a decisive contribution. The goals are concretised in eight priority fields of action. For each field of action, it is shown here how it is underpinned by concrete actions to achieve the strategic goals.
Global warming is mainly due to an increase in man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The consequences can already be observed worldwide. In Germany, too, we are feeling the effects of climate change: the incidence of heavy rainfall, drought and heat records is increasing, and sea levels are rising.
Germany aims to be largely greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by at least 55 per cent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels in accordance with the Federal Climate Action Act. This requires competitive measures with a high leverage effect in terms of the potential to save and avoid greenhouse gases.
We will use CO2 and other waste gases as raw materials, avoid emissions of greenhouse gases and develop solutions for sustainable primary industries.
We will make green hydrogen marketable and enable its production, transportability and usability on an industrial scale.
We will investigate methods of actively extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and identify the most environmentally friendly courses of action.
Extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts, heavy rainfall, floods and storms cause billions of euros in damage, some of which is life-threatening. Knowledge is therefore needed about how climate change affects the frequency and intensity of extreme events and how people, infrastructure and goods can be protected from these extremes. Preventive research on climate adaptation includes health considerations. This is because the increase in extreme weather events – for example, the rising number of hot days – also has direct effects on human health.
We want to find out how severely Germany will be affected by extreme weather events in the future and how we can prepare and protect ourselves.
We are studying the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on human health. This creates the knowledge base for concrete precautionary and preventive measures.
We want to make cities and regions more resilient to the effects of climate change and improve risk provisioning.
To achieve an effective international climate policy, political decision-makers need reliable forecasts of global climate developments, including in the marine and polar regions.
We want to reduce the uncertainties in climate modelling and make projections for the future more reliable.
We are developing a prototype for national greenhouse gas monitoring.
We want to better understand the influence of marine and polar regions on Earth’s climate system.
Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are the basis of all life. However, due to rapid population and economic growth and the consequences of climate change, they are highly vulnerable. Globally, water scarcity, water pollution and land degradation increasingly threaten our ecosystems and affect the economic and political stability of entire regions and countries. The protection and sustainable use of natural resources is therefore a central theme of the 2030 Agenda – and also of FONA.
The current decline in biodiversity and changes in terrestrial, inland aquatic and marine ecosystems are unprecedented in history. The rate of species loss calls for action.
We want to use innovative methods and technologies to record biodiversity comprehensively and automatically in order to better understand and counteract the decline in biodiversity.
We want to close the knowledge gaps relating to the causes, dynamics and consequences of changes in biodiversity and obtain reliable projections of the development of biodiversity.
We will develop concrete protection and management strategies to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems.
The global demand for resources already exceeds what the Earth itself can renew. Global population growth will further increase pressure on natural resources such as clean water and usable land. Water resources musttherefore be used more efficiently, pollution – including plastic debris in the oceans – must be minimised, andthe proportion of treated wastewater must be increased. In addition, the possibilities of water extraction, forexample through saline water treatment, must be improved and used on an industrial scale.
We want to mitigate the incidence of water crises worldwide and secure water supplies. We will develop innovative technologies for this purpose.
We want to stop the pollution of rivers and seas and to ensure that water quality in this country is impeccable.
We will develop a holistic understanding of how to maintain healthy soils and use land sustainably.
We are rethinking agricultural production and connecting up knowledge across system boundaries.
Our linear economy leads to excessive consumption of resources and produces large amounts of waste. Per capita demand for raw materials in Germany is twice as high as the global average.
The transition to a resource-efficient circular economy will enable us to create more added value with fewer raw materials.
We will add biogenic raw materials to our range of raw materials. These can be optimally utilised in various processing stages and then returned to the cycle. This avoids additional waste.
We want to achieve intelligent, resource-efficient and energy-efficient use of plastics – among other things through a genuine circular economy.
We will secure the future supply of phosphorus by recovering it from wastewater and sewage sludge.
The 2030 Agenda addresses the issue of a sustainable and decent life for all people regardless of their place of residence and social background through a number of SDGs. The challenges of achieving this also exist in Germany. There are considerable regional differences in terms of economic performance and innovative strength. Strong economic areas stand in contrast to regions – both rural and urban – with lower income and employment opportunities. About 40 per cent of the population in Germany lives in structurally weak regions. These include old industrial centres, rural areas and numerous border and coastal regions in the east and west.
Making an innovation-oriented, sustainable and socially just future possible – that is our declared goal. To this end, sustainable and future-proof scientific and economic structures must be created in Germany and unequal developments within society, between urban and rural areas or between structurally strong and weak regions must be counteracted.
We want to create viable and sustainable scientific and economic structures in Germany and are committed to democratic participation.
We want to support sustainable business practices and use the leverage effects of the financial sector in particular to promote gearing the real economy towards a climate-friendly mindset.
We want strong, attractive and sustainable regions throughout Germany. That is why we want to promote innovation-based, resource-saving and climate-friendly structural change that will secure prosperity and jobs.
We want to form structural change in coal-mining areas through research and innovation.
We want to jointly develop viable strategies for urban and rural areas to make our regions sustainable and fit for the future.
We want to secure people’s mobility with innovations and at the same time improve the quality of the environment and the quality of life in urban and rural areas.
The cross-sectional topics address issues of sustainable development that play a role across the board in all of the actions. These topics are therefore a connecting element between the individual actions and are essential for the success of their implementation. By taking account of these cross-sectional topics in all of the actions, we are ensuring that research in FONA is networked, effective and geared to the future.
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