Recent and current research projects

Current research projects

Visions of land use transitions in Europe (VOLANTE)

VOLANTE will provide an interdisciplinary scientific basis to inform land use and natural resource management policies and decision-making. The overarching aims of the project are to design new methodologies and integrated models to analyse human-environment interactions, feedbacks in land use systems, hotspots of land use transitions and identify critical thresholds in land system dynamics.

[EU-FP7, 2010-2015]

Global Assessment of Land Use dynamics on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Ecosystem Services (GLUES)

Coordination and Synthesis of Regional Studies on Land Management in BMBF-call "Sustainable Landmanagement", Part A

[BMBF, Forschung für Nachhaltigkeit, 2010-2015]

Enhancing Robustness and Model Integration for the Assessment of Global Environmental Change (ERMITAGE)

ERMITAGE proposes to advance the integration of models representing the global climate system, the economy and climate change mitigation strategies, and models representing agriculture, hydrology and land use.

[EU-FP7, 2010-2013]

Sustainable water management in a globalized world (NAWAMA)

[BMBF, Wirtschaftswissenschaften für Nachhaltigkeit, April 2010 – March 2013]

Impacts of global bio-energy expansion on economic development, climate and biodiversity (BioenergyPlanet)

[WGL-Pakt für Forschung, January 2009 – December 2012]

Klimaschutz, Entwicklung und Gerechtigkeit: Dekarbonisierung in Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern (ENTDEKEN)

Climate change and the fight against global poverty are two challenges for this century that cannot be seen separately. The challenge is find solutions between promoting economic growth (and thus burdening the climate) on the one hand, and forgoing economic growth (and thus burdening the poor) on the other. To meet this challenge new pathways for low carbon development will be identified.

Hydrothermal Carbonization of biomass to coal (HTC)

Together with several other partner institutes we are working on the optimisation of so called HTC-reaction by gaining a deeper understanding of the chemical reactions involved. Building and running a trial plant for hydrothermal carbonisation of biomass is also involved in the project.

[BMBF, Forschung für Nachhaltigkeit, April 2009 - March 2012]

Climate Change Adaptation in African Agriculture (I)
Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: Targeting the Most Vulnerable

[Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), June 2008 – May 2011] [coordinator: IFPRI]

Climate Change Adaptation in African Agriculture (II)
Supporting the vulnerable: Increasing the adaptive capacity of agro-pastoralists to climatic change in West and Southern Africa

[Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), June 2008 – May 2011] [coordinator: ILRI]

Previous projects

Der Preis des Wassers - The Price of Water

Valuation of global water resources with a dynamic optimization approach
[BMBF, Wirtschaftswissenschaften für Nachhaltigkeit, March 2007 – February 2010]

Klimawandel und Gerechtigkeit - Climate Change and Justice

The main aim of the project is to study connections and interactions between the avoidance of dangerous climate change and global poverty from an interdisciplinary perspective. The basis for the study is an analysis of the consequences of climate change for developing nations, and especially for the poor both globally and in particular regions. The analysis will concentrate on certain key problem areas in which climate change and the poverty question are particularly closely interwoven: the security of food resources, energy supply and water availability.

[MISEREOR, Münchner-Rück-Stiftung, June 2007 – May 2010]

Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: Supporting European Climate Policy (ADAM)

ADAM is an international project with 26 partner institutes involved. It is coordinated by the Tyndall Centre in Norwich, UK, and funded under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. ADAM will lead to a better understanding of the trade-offs and conflicts that exist between adaptation and mitigation policies. It will support EU policy development in the next stage of the development of the Kyoto Protocol and will support the emergence of new adaptation strategies for Europe. Work Package M2 (Mitigation at the Global Level) is one of 7 work packages within ADAM and is led by Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer. It aims at assessing the mitigation options of post-2012 EU and global climate policies.

Report on Energy and Climate Policies in Europe (RECIPE)

In this project PIK and it´s project partners CIRED and CMCC are working on a European Stern Review. RECIPE investigates the energy and climate policies necessary to reach the 2-degree-target. Policy instruments, investment options and necessary steps for the critical industries are being investigated.

World Development Report 2010 - Background paper

Land use under climate change and global change including bioenergy
[World Bank, December 2008 - December 2009]