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Climate Action Tracker Update: No major movement towards lowering emissions before the UN climate talks in Bonn
07/29/2010 – Three days before the start of the next round of UN negotiations on climate change in Bonn, actions pledged globally on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions give virtually no chance to limit global mean temperature increase to below two degrees Celsius. That is the result of the latest analysis by the so-called ‘Climate Action Tracker’, an online climate policy assessment system developed by Ecofys, Climate Analytics and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Young scientist wins Study Award in Physics
07/09/2010 – Young PIK-scientist Jonathan Donges was honoured with the Study Award in Physics donated by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation in Berlin yesterday. He received the award for his outstanding academic achievement during his diploma studies. The award, offered by the Physical Society of Berlin, is given to the top ten diploma students of each year of Berlin and Potsdam.
Land plants process 15 percent of total atmospheric carbon dioxide each year
07/06/2010 - Terrestrial ecosystems draw about 123 billion tonnes of carbon (450 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, CO2) from the atmosphere each year. Based on worldwide local measurements and data-driven model simulations, an international team of researchers led by Christian Beer of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena has for the first time provided an observation-based estimate of the largest global flux of carbon between land and atmosphere and of its climate dependencies. The researchers evaluated the result against spatially explicit process models including the leading model LPJmL from PIK. Tropical ecosystems such as rain forests and savannas account for almost two thirds of the CO2 uptake, they report in an article published by the journal “Science” on the “Science Express” web site today.
"Hot" topic: What emissions reductions are necessary to respect 2°C climate target?
07/05/2010 – The article “Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2C”, lead authored by PIK-scientist Malte Meinshausen, is one of the most-cited papers in the discipline of Geosciences published during the past two years. The study appeared in the renowned journal Nature. The paper quantified for the first time the emissions reduction requirements for staying below two degrees celsius.
Elinor Ostrom: "It would be unwise to wait for politics"
07/01/2010 – Around 1300 listeners attended the 2nd Climate Lecture at the Technische Universität (TU) Berlin. A TV recording of the event is now available online.
Conscious choice of food can substantially mitigate climate change
06/28/2010 - Reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products and improving agricultural practices could decrease global greenhouse gas emissions substantially. By 2055 the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture could be cut by more than eighty percent, researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research find. The results of the modelling study have recently been published in the journal “Global Environmental Change”.
Atlantic surface circulation qualifies as ‘tipped’ element
06/25/2010 - An abrupt and persistent strengthening of the ocean currents forming the Atlantic subpolar gyre could have resulted from a large freshwater flooding event 8,200 years ago. New climate model simulations resolve the contradiction of increased freshwater inflow and enhanced deep water formation in the North Atlantic. The enhanced surface circulation could contribute to the climatic stability since the last ice age, the researchers suggest in the American Geophysical Union’s electronic journal “G-Cubed”.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change appoints authors for fifth Assessment Report
06/24/2010 - 831 scientists will contribute to the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to be published between June 2013 and March 2014. On Wednesday, the IPCC Secretariat in Geneva released the list of experts who will work towards delivering the three Working Groups’ reports. Seven scientists working at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have been named.
Climate Action Tracker Update: Little progress - Countries still heading for over 3ºC warming
06/10/2010 - Despite recent developments, actions pledged globally to date on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions give virtually no chance to limit global mean temperature increase to below two degrees Celsius.
Greater than 50% chance of global warming exceeding 3°C by 2100
06/02/2010 - Research results to be launched today at the UNFCCC meeting in Bonn by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Ecofys and Climate Analytics will show that current pledges by countries around the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions are not sufficient to keep global temperature rises below the 2°C agreed in the Copenhagen Accord.
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.
Copenhagen Accord misses 2° C climate target
04/22/2010 - The current national emissions-reduction pledges accompanying the Copenhagen Accord will not limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. In fact, they imply a global mean temperature increase of more than three degrees Celsius this century. This is reported by a team of researchers led by Joeri Rogelj and Malte Meinshausen of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in the current edition of the journal “Nature”.
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.
International Conference “Continents under Climate Change” in Berlin
From 21 to 23 April 2010, the Humboldt-Universität, in co-operation with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, will host the international conference “Continents under Climate Change” in Berlin. Leading scientists from all continents will discuss recent results from ongoing research on global and regional impacts of climate change.
Europe could create a 100% renewable electricity supply by 2050
03/29/2010 – Renewable energy sources could be used at scale by 2050 if supported by an efficient European transmission grid and a single European power market united with similar grids and markets in North Africa. This is shown in a new report released last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers. A group of energy and climate experts from the company in collaboration with researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the European Climate Forum (ECF) have examined possible transformation paths for the European and North African power sector. A transformation of the power sector based on one hundred percent renewables would address energy security and supply concerns while decarbonising electricity generation and at the same time reduce energy poverty, the report says.
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.
