Search results

05/31/2023 - Humans are taking colossal risks with the future of civilization and everything that lives on Earth, a new study published in the journal Nature shows. Developed by an international science commission engaging more than 40 researchers from across the globe, the scientists deliver the first quantification of safe and just Earth system boundaries on a global and local level for several biophysical processes and systems that regulate the state of the Earth system. For the first time, safety and justice for humanity on Earth is assessed and quantified for the same control variables regulating life support and Earth stability. Justice, assessed based on avoiding significant harm to people across the world, leads to more stringent Earth system boundaries. This is extremely challenging, as the Earth Commission concludes that numerous of the safe boundaries are already crossed today.

05/11/2023 - Adapting to global shocks, transforming and creating new ways of functioning as a society: This is how reshaping a resilient future in the aftermath of a shock should look like, shows a new Nature Sustainability Perspective with PIK Director Johan Rockström.

05/04/2023 - Ministers from 40 countries met this week at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in preparation of the next UN Climate Conference COP28 in November. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), was among the invited speakers at the meeting, which is hosted annually by the German government with the conference presidency. “The Petersberg Climate Dialogue is an important stepping stone for the upcoming COP later this year in Dubai, where the Global Stocktake will be at the heart of international climate negotiations,” explains Rockström.

04/13/2023 - TIME named Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, to the 2023 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

03/22/2023 - Water overuse and a failure to recognize that countries are interdependent when it comes to the global water cycle has put the world on a path to a potential 40% freshwater supply shortfall by the end of the decade. Water therefore has to be treated as a global common good. This is stated in a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) and also in a Nature Commentary – both led by PIK director Johan Rockström and released in the context of the UN Water Conference in New York, the first such meeting in 50 years.

03/17/2023 - The concept of planetary boundaries should be included in the cost-benefit analysis of policy pathways, shows a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change MCC.