Director's News
Chancellor Angela Merkel: “You should get on politicians nerves"
05/07/2012 - German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned about the consequences of unabated climate change and called on scientists to keep on pushing this topic. “You should be persistent and sometimes get on politicians nerves,” Merkel said at a symposium of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WGBU) which was founded 20 years ago. Coming to a worldwide agreement on limiting global warming to two degrees would be difficult, and the energy transition would ask for the willingness for change from the German public, the chancellor said. However, not doing anything is no option, she said: “All progress is of little use if we react too slowly. That’s why we should be aware of what is going to happen if nothing happens now. And that is going to be bitter.”
Durban Redraws World Map of Climate Politics
In an interview with Allianz Knowledge, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber describes the fundamental change of the diplomatic world map on climate policy a 'historic milestone'. He further argues that, despite new emerging alliances, it will now be very difficult to meet the two-degree-target. Source: Allianz Knowledge, 20.12.11
The dilemma of geoengineering
12/13/2011 – End-of-the-chimney fixes for anthropogenic global warming are becoming increasingly popular in public debate. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), now sheds some light on the fundamental dilemma of geoengineering in a comment published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “This is a tale of two fairies: the rather wicked one conjures up solar radiation management, and the tolerably good one delivers CO2 removal through schemes like industrial ‘air capture,” says Schellnhuber. The latter however would generate “a multitrillion dollar bill,” he points out.
Science and Policy: Dialogue in Durban
12/06/2011 - Leading policy-makers and researchers met today in Durban to urge climate negotiators to acknowledge scientific findings and address the sustainability challenge. Amongst the participants of this dialogue were Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa and Co-Chair of the UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, and the European Union’s Climate Comissioner Conny Hedegaard, as well as Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics. The event was hosted by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Johan Rockström, Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Stiftung Mercator and PIK initiate new institute with EUR 17m budget
11/28/2011 - Today Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) announced the foundation of a joint institute for research and policy advice in Berlin. The Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) will address interdisciplinary research on questions of sustainable growth in a finite world. The MCC will be run by Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer, who will also remain as Deputy Director at PIK. Stiftung Mercator is providing financing of around EUR 17m over eight years. This is the largest individual funding contribution ever provided by a private foundation in the field of climate research in Germany. Up to 40 jobs will be created over the course of the coming year. The institute is likely to be located at the Euref site in Schöneberg, Berlin.
Nuclear plans threaten UK's part in renewables revolution, expert warns
Schellnhuber argues in an online Guardian article that the UK is not ready to participate in the 'third industrial revolution'. Source: The Guardian, 15.11.11
Schellnhuber receives renowned Volvo Environment Prize
11/04/2011 - The Volvo Environment Prize was awarded to the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, in Stockholm yesterday. The internationally recognized prize for “outstanding innovations or scientific discoveries” is in its 20th year and is endowed with 160.000€. Schellnhuber is the first German to receive the prize.
„Tireless admonisher“ receives Federal Cross of Merit
10/06/2011 - Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), was awarded the Order of Merit, first class, of the Federal Republic of Germany by President Christian Wulff this tuesday.
Schellnhuber: CCS technology “should not be demonized“
09/22/2011 - The controversial issue of carbon capture and storage, CCS, is on the agenda of the German Bundesrat this week. However, the public debate about this technology is characterized by a variety of fears. It is in this context that the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, is highlighting the relevance of the sequestration of CO2 for climate change mitigation. “Scientific scenarios show that without CCS, avoiding dangerous climate change will be considerably more expensive," says Schellnhuber. “Heavy investment in other technologies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases would then become necessary.”
„Brown coal is not sustainable“: Researchers attend state government session
09/01/2011 - If Brandenburg wants to reach its climate targets, it cannot just carry on relying on power generation from brown coal. This, and more, has been stated by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week when attending the state government session. “Such an open and intensive dialogue between science and politics is anything but a matter of course,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. For the fourth time already, Brandenburg’s prime minister Matthias Platzeck invited Schellnhuber and his colleagues for a discussion on energy policy and climate change.
"Coming out"
08/10/2011 - Scientists should do science, not appear in the public sphere – that’s a popular view. This week, philosophers and physicists, economists and ecologists discussed this issue in a workshop initiated by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance. “Science has to constantly follow the principle of truth”, says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. “And that is exactly why it has a societal responsibility.”
“Australia in a hot world”
07/12/2011 - Right in the middle of a heated debate in Australia about the carbon tax just announced by the government, a scientific event in Melbourne this week sheds light on the consequences of climate change for down under. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been invited by Australian climate scientists to give the opening lecture as well as the public keynote speech plus some concluding remarks at the conference “Four degrees or more? Australia in a hot world”.
Indian Minister of Environment and Forests proposes science and politics to meet in Potsdam
07/04/2011 - Leading scientists and politicians from all over the world are to debate new pathways for international climate negotiations – this was suggested by the Indian Minister of Environment and Forests during a visit to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research this Monday. In time before the next round of negotiations of the global community of states will take place in Durban, South Africa, before the end of the year, Ramesh wants stakeholders to exchange views with the sciences. The question of a fair share of rights for greenhouse gas emissions could be central. “The work of the Potsdam Institute in this field has been groundbreaking”, Ramesh said.
Vatican Science Panel Calls Attention to the Threat of Glacial Melt
05/09/2011 - A panel of some of the world's leading climate and glacier scientists co-chaired by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher issued a report today commissioned by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences citing the moral imperative before society to properly address climate change. (This press release has been drafted by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego - the PIK sent out it's own press release only for German language media.)
Sustainable change needs a new social contract
04/07/2011 - To achieve the transition to an “age of efficiency and renewables”, a scientific advisory council calls for nothing less but a reconstruction of civil society. This can only be achieved through a new kind of interaction between governments and citizens, with citizens being more involved in political decisions. As stated today by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) during the presentation of its flagship report “World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability”, massive investments in energy transformation, changes in consumption habits and the imposition of global fees on greenhouse gas emissions will be necessary in order to meet the challenge.
"The dictatorship of now": Schellnhuber in Spiegel magazine
03/22/2011 – In the light of the nuclear tragedy in Japan Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, brings forward the idea of a new social contract. In an interview with Spiegel magazine, he explains why the rights of coming generations have to be taken more seriously. “Once for all we have to decide to leave our descendants more than just nuclear risks and climate change”, Schellnhuber says. “This means empathy across space and time.”
Schellnhuber directs topic group of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
08/16/2010 - The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina strengthens its consulting activities for policymakers and the public by setting up topic groups. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), has been appointed spokesman of the topic group “Climate, Energy and Environment”.
A global limit on emissions, equal per-capita emissions rights and “peak and trade” emissions trading for the “2°max Climate Strategy”
04/27/2010 – A report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK-Report No. 116), published today, points at constructional flaws in the current global system for protection of the climate. The authors analyse the interests of the different groups of countries and delineate how international climate policy could be modified to keep global warming to two degrees Celsius, as called for in the Copenhagen Accord.
A dream of heavenly isolation – and to hell with the future
Contrary to widespread opinion, the Copenhagen climate conference of December 2009 was not a complete failure: for the first time ever, the Copenhagen Accord with its 2 degree guard rail gives international climate policy a specified figure to aim for and also contains a number of important building blocks for a comprehensive global climate agreement. Nonetheless, this document constitutes a base-level compromise which sees the major goals presented by the triple combined challenges of climate change, energy and development recede into the far distance. The pledges offered by 76 countries translate scientifically into an expected value of 3.5°C by the year 2100 for global warming resulting from human activities.
Editorial on Tipping Elements online-hit of PNAS
04/20/2010 – An article in the renowned journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS) by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber regarding Tipping elements in the Earth System was one of the 30 most read online papers in January and February 2010.
