Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC)

Global economic growth has led to the overuse of natural resources like the atmosphere, land and forests. These special assets are called global commons, because they need worldwide cooperation for their sustainable use. To achieve that, a farsighted and international view is needed, which governments and other stakeholders often lack. MCC aims to fill this gap and provides policy advice as well as research on long-term, global issues such as climate change: In this area we explore solutions, foster public debates, and support a broad societal exploration of development alternatives.

Our Work

- Long-term and global: Based on high-level research, MCC develops and discusses solutions that address the long-term governance of global commons. The aim is to enhance sustainable development and to mitigate climate change. Although our research is driven by real-world problems, day-to-day politics are not our primary focus. Our research focuses on the conceptual design of policies with a long-term perspective.
- National and worldwide: MCC’s non-prescriptive approach to policy advice and assessment processes is addressed towards a broad spectrum of decision-makers at national, European and global levels, as well as international organizations and stakeholders from business or non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
- Transdisciplinary and thematically broad: We follow a transdisciplinary and thematically broad approach to assemble the required expertise in different complex and interrelated systems. Although our research is mainly rooted in economics, we also draw on disciplinary knowledge from philosophy, political science and other social sciences. We apply a broad range of methods, including empirical and theoretical analyses.
- Independent and relevant: While listening carefully to the existing demand for policy assessments, we are independent in our choice of topics and provide expertise for highly relevant societal problems without being constrained by sectional interests or predetermined outcomes.

MCC was founded in 2012 by Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).