News
SPECIAL: Growing world trade makes food production cheaper – at the expense of the environment
Further opening of the markets for agricultural products leads to lower production costs for food. This will happen at the expense of the environment though, if for example forests are turned into cropland. The conflict of interests between food production and climate protection is now shown by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in calculations for the years 2005 to 2045. For the first time, the effects of an advancing liberalization of agricultural trade were comprehensively analyzed through computer simulations, focusing both on the economic impacts and on those on land use and nature. This is one of the important issues to be discussed at the UN summit in Durban next week.
PIK ranked amongst top environmental think tanks
01/20/2012 – The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research again has been ranked amongst the top environmental think tanks worldwide. In the 2011 survey now published, it has been placed on the fourth rank – slightly improving from a fifth rank in the year before and a seventh rank in 2009. The winner in this research area is the Pew Center on Global Change in the US. Approximately 5300 think tanks in different categories participated in this ranking.
Green Growth: World Bank appoints Edenhofer as an advisor
01/16/2012 - The World Bank appointed Ottmar Edenhofer of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as a member of the advisory committee of the Green Growth Knowlegde Platform. This platform is a joint effort of the Global Green Growth Institute, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and World Bank, to identify and address major knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice. In order to help countries design and implement policies to move towards a green economy, it brings together leading researchers and practitioners from all over the globe. The platform just held its inaugural conference in Mexico City.
New building for 17 million Euro – research project included
01/13/2012 - Climate research in Potsdam gets a new house. Next to the impressing main buildings from the 19th century, a new energetically optimized building for 190 employees and a planned new high-performance computer will be built for the cost of 17 million Euro altogether. The laying of the foundation stone will take place this year. The building is also subject of a research project on energetic optimization, in cooperation with Dresden Technical University.
“New hot paper”: International news agency
01/03/2012 - The leading international news agency Thomson Reuters ranked a study by scientists of the Potsdam Institue for Climate Impact Research as a top “New Hot Paper” this month. “The Economics of Low Stabilization: Model Comparison of Mitigation Strategies and Costs” by Ottmar Edenhofer, Brigitte Knopf and others has been identified as one of the most-cited papers published during the past two years in the field of economics and business.
Climate scientist writes for children, and other new books
12/30/2011 – Several intriguing books have been published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this year. The probably most unusual one is by Stefan Rahmstorf, co-chair of the Earth System Analysis research domain: He wrote a book on climate and weather for children. Other books cover topics ranging from extreme events to China to religion – to name just a few.
Proposals for reducing emissions must balance with development needs
12/22/2011 – How to integrate developing countries into global CO2 reduction schemes is subject of an ongoing debate. An approach for balancing climate change mitigation and the need for development is now being presented by the North South Project of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study shows that emissions of societies up to now are closely linked to their human development levels under parallel consideration of the 2 degrees target. The 2 degrees guardrail by 2050 has been accepted by states around the world in order to prevent dangerous climate change.
Excellence at PIK
12/22/2011 - The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of the most important scientific institutions in this field of research worldwide; many international scientists are therefore drawn to Potsdam. A manifestation of the excellent work done at PIK is the growing number of professorships held by PIK scientists or to where they move on.
