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Technological options are critical for economic viability of 2°C climate target
03/15/2010 - Tapping renewable energy sources, capturing and storing of industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and improving energy efficiency are pivotal for holding the increase in global temperature below two degrees Celsius. In a special issue of “The Energy Journal”, a team of researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and four other European institutions reports that atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases can be stabilized at correspondingly low levels at moderate costs. However, costs, as well as the dependency on specific technologies, increase with the chances to achieve the 2°C target.
Weakening Sun would hardly slow global warming
03/10/2010 - A new Grand Minimum of solar activity would decrease the rise of global mean temperature caused by human greenhouse gas emissions only marginally. A new modelling study by researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, published online today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, finds a temperature offset of at most 0.3 degrees Celsius until the end of the century. This is less than ten percent of the temperature rise projected under “business as usual” scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Schellnhuber joins Santa Fe Institute
03/08/2010 - Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), has been appointed to the position of External Professor of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI). The election to the external faculty recognizes Schellnhubers “many contributions to science and the SFI research effort”. At the US institution a transdisciplinary research community, working in the field of complexity science, investigates physical, computational, biological, and social systems. The term of the appointment is January 2010 through June 2013.
Erhard-Höpfner-Foundation honours PIK-scientist
03/02/2010 - Marianne Haseloff of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been selected for the Erhard-Höpfner-Award. With the award, the Erhard Höpfner Foundation and the Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft honour her diploma thesis as an outstanding achievement. The award ceremony will be held today during the members’ assembly of the Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft.
Light-based computing, quick as a thought
02/24/2010 - Inspired by the fast processing of information in the human brain, a consortium of European research institutions is developing a novel kind of computing. The EU funded project “PHOCUS” that started in January aims at designing photonic systems, communicating via light, to quickly perform complex computations including the rapid processing of large amounts of data, potentially consuming far less power than current supercomputers.
Stefan Rahmstorf elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union
02/17/2010 - As a “special tribute for exceptional scientific contributions”, Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The honorary fellowship is bestowed on only one in each thousand members in any given year, who have attained “acknowledged eminence in the Earth and space sciences”.
New book rises to the global sustainability challenge
02/08/2010 - In the wake of the Copenhagen climate conference, which ended without a clear mandate for global climate protection, the new book Global Sustainability - A Nobel Cause, published by Cambridge University Press, addresses the main lines of conflicts and offers new solutions. The contributing authors - Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and peace, top-level political leaders, representatives of major NGOs and renowned experts on sustainability - point out strategies for the stabilisation of the climate and global sustainable development. The open access publication is now available for download.
Ambitions of only two developed countries sufficiently stringent for 2°C
2010/02/03 - Only 2 out of 10 developed countries’ reduction targets submitted to the Copenhagen Accord qualify as ‘sufficient’ to keep global temperature rise below 2°C, finds the update of the ’Climate Action Tracker´. The reduction targets of all countries currently associated with the Accord are not consistent with the 2°C goal defined in the very same Accord. The current pledges leave the world heading for a global warming of over 3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
PIK devises climate strategy for Potsdam
01/19/2010 - A consortium of institutes and companies led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is to develop a strategy for climate protection for the City of Potsdam. The Mayor of Potsdam, capital of the German state of Brandenburg, Jann Jakobs, today entrusted the consortium with devising concepts for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change up to 2050. Following the sobering outcome of the world climate conference in Copenhagen, the engagement of cities, companies and private persons in reduction and adaptation issues appears to be especially important.
PIK will be leading member of Climate Initiative of European Institute of Innovation and Technology
Budapest/Potsdam, 12/16/2009 - The European Union´s Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) announced today its Knowledge and Innovation Community (‘Climate-KIC’), a cluster of 16 highly integrated partnerships, bringing together excellent higher education, research and business around the topics of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of its five major academic partners and will lead the German consortium. Among its members are the Berlin Institute of Technology, the Technische Universität München and the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. The Klima Campus Hamburg and the Forschungszentrum Jülich also joined prior to the implementation of the initiative.
Emissions cut of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 needed for industrial countries for 2°C limit
12/15/2009 - Authors of the landmark 2009 climate report “The Copenhagen Diagnosis” estimate that by 2020 industrial nations must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by around 40% below 1990 levels to secure a decent chance of avoiding dangerous human interference with the climate system.
Intelligent transfer of information on climate protection and adaptation options - PIK and GTZ present climate information service
12/12/2009 - In the light of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) together with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) presented a preview of its climate service “ci:grasp” (Climate Impacts: Global and Regional Adaptation Support Platform) last thursday. “The central idea behind our platform is to develop a science-based tool to support decision making on adaptation to climate impacts at the regional level,” says Jürgen Kropp, Head of the North-South research group at PIK, which is developing the ci:grasp platform. The methodological approach guarantees higher efficiency of financial investments into adaptation measures as they can be focused and their effects be maximized.
Tipping Elements in the Earth System: How Stable is the Contemporary Environment?
12/08/2009 - A Special Feature of the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” presents the latest scientific insights on so-called tipping elements in the planetary environment. These elements have been identified as the most vulnerable large-scale components of the Earth System that may be profoundly altered by human interference. If one or more of those components is tipped – especially in the course of global warming – then the age of remarkably stable environmental conditions on Earth throughout the Holocene may end quickly and irreversibly.
Sea Level Rise could reach 1.9 Metres this century
12/07/2009 - A new scientific study warns that sea level could rise much faster than previously expected. By the year 2100, global sea level could rise between 75 and 190 centimetres, according to a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Climate Scientists make 'Copenhagen Diagnosis'
24/11/2009 - Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations, urgent emissions reductions required, say leading scientists.
Model Climate Summit in Potsdam: Students negotiate World Climate Treaty
11/18/2009 - Three weeks before the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen fifty students take over the role of heads of states of the key players among both developing and developed countries. During a one-day simulated UN Climate Summit “Model-COP15” they try to negotiate a realistic but still innovative suggestion of a post-Kyoto Climate treaty.
The nature of past Antarctic temperature lead over carbon dioxide is clarified
11/11/2009 - The analysis of past changes of Antarctic temperature and the concentration of greenhouse gases alone cannot reveal causal relationships in the climate system. A recent modeling study shows that several climate processes need to be taken into account to discern causes and consequences. In the journal “Quaternary Science Reviews” researchers provide an explanation for observed Antarctic temperature lead over carbon dioxide concentration for several recent glacial-interglacial transitions.
60 Nobel Laureates: Copenhagen must be a Turning Point towards Global Sustainability
11/10/2009 - 60 Nobel Laureates are calling on world leaders for a global deal on climate change that matches the scale and urgency of the human, ecological and economic crises facing the world today. Political leadership is now more necessary than ever. The call comes in a Memorandum signed by Laureates from across the disciplines, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Mikhail Gorbachev, his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mohamed el-Baradei, chief of the IAEA, and winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature Doris Lessing, John Coetzee and Wole Soyinka.
Schellnhuber briefs UN on Tipping Elements and Budget Approach
11/05/2009 - “The window of opportunity to avert the most serious impacts of climate change is closing rapidly,” Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chair of the German government’s Advisory Council on Global Change, said at a briefing session at UN headquarters in New York today. The session was organized by the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Europe will profit from climate protection if it acts now
09/11/03 - RECIPE (Report on Energy and Climate Policy in Europe), a European study on the costs of climate protection, has demonstrated for the first time that: • Early action is the only way to avert dangerous consequences from climate change at manageable costs. • Europe will profit from a leadership role, even if other countries continue to hesitate • Distributing the costs of climate protection will not overburden any region of the world; transfers to emerging nations will keep overall costs down • Climate change can only be contained if measures take effect by 2020
