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RD 2 - Climate Resilience

IPCC Cities Conference, keynote speech by J.P. Kropp

04-08/03/2018 - Dr. Jürgen Kropp of RD2 provided a keynote speech on "Solutions for the transition to low carbon and climate resilient cities" during the Opening Panel of the IPCC Cities Conference in Edmonton, Canada. He subsequently contributed to the panel discussion on foreseeable urban challenges during the 21st century.

PIK Research Days: “Keep digging in your pockets”

02/23/2018 - Scientists and staff of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) gathered this week for their annual roadshow of scientific achievements and discussions of future projects. Climate negotiations, climate migration, public health, sea-level legacy, jet streams, ice losses at Antarctica, carbon pricing – these were just some of the topics presented by PIK’s four research domains. This year’s research days focused in particular on the upcoming 1.5°C IPCC special report as well as on global change, big data and digitalization.

Potsdam-China and back: "When climate projections return home"

02/05/2018 - China's Guanting region is threatened by water scarcity - how water and land can be used sustainably was explored over several years by a German-Chinese team headed by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Now the scientists published a book on their findings. The researchers applied computer simulations on climate change and water cycles in Brandenburg to the Guanting region. They thereby gained valuable new methodological insights for refining their models - and now bring this back to Germany: a learning process across continents.

Congratulations Dr. Bernhard Schauberger

24/01/2018 - Bernhard Schauberger successfully defended his PhD thesis with the title: 'Improving crop models with respect to yield variability and climate extremes as a precondition for food security assessments' at the Humboldt University of Berlin

Congratulations Dr. Christin Meyer!

12/20/2017 - Our colleague Christin Meyer has successfully defended her PhD thesis "Climate Change and Sustainable Risk Management for Agriculture - Building business resilience through adaptation. The Case Study of the `Mount Hesse`farm in Australia" at the University of Hamburg.

VDL Journal - Interview mit Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen

12/22/2017 - Kurz vor Weihnachten wurde RD2 Co-Chair Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen vom VDL-Journal in einem Interview zum Thema 'Folgen des Klimawandels und wie ihnen begegnet werden kann' befragt.

PIK scientists at the Chaos Communication Congress 34C3

29/12/2017 - For four days between Christmas and New Year´s, thousands of hackers, experts and artists meet every year to exchange news and views and learn about new technological developments and tools. The 34th Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) takes place in Leipzig this year, the organizers expect more than 13.000 participants. Science is represented as well, this year also by experts of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) - climate change is one of this year´s main themes.

ReKliEs-De: Future climate trends in Germany

12/11/2017 - More heat-waves and heavy rainfalls, fewer cold spells, an increase in the annual mean temperature by 4°C, this is how the climate in Germany could evolve until the year 2100 in a scenario of unabated climate change - with massive consequences for agriculture and public health. These are the results of the project ReKliEs-De ("Regional Climate Projections Ensemble for Germany") which for the first time estimates current climate projections for the German federal states and river basins. The prospects for Germany in a business as usual scenario are severe - if no active countermeasures will be taken. However, the results also show that if all climate protection agreements will be consistently implemented, the two-degree target agreed in Paris is still achievable.

Climate and public health: Leopoldina Dialogue in Potsdam

12/05/2017 - Climate change related risks for public health are one of the most important challenges of today. However, the science communities on both sides of the fence have so far not sufficiently interacted to reflect the critical nexus of climate change and health. Taking the first mover advantage, a workshop of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) now brought together renowned scientists from climate sciences, health and medicine, psychology, environmental sciences, social sciences and economics. They will develop a publication offering stakeholder and decision-makers orientation on public health and climate policy.

Round table about climate-change communication at PIK

10/05/2017 - Specialists in the field of climate-change communications met in Potsdam to discuss communication and climate change.

Consumption is the bottleneck for sustainable development

12/01/2017 - From ending poverty to improving wellbeing, gender equality, cities' resilience or climate action - while synergies among most of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) foster progress in sustainable development, there are some key conflicts or bottlenecks that could hamper achieving the SDG objectives for 2030. This is the result of a new comprehensive analysis by a team of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). According to the study, responsible consumption and production seems to be such a bottleneck, as data from the past shows.

Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen in "top agrar"

10/26/2017 - "top agrar", one of the leading monthly journals for practical farmers in Germany, features an external contribution from Prof. Dr. Hermann Lotze-Campen on land use in the future.

Many PIK scientists at COP23 in Bonn

03/11/2017 - A number of experts from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) will take part in the climate summit COP23, taking place from November 6-17 in Bonn and presided by Fiji. PIK director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber will present the ten things you need to know about climate change, together with UNFCCC´s Patricia Espinosa, for example. At a side event with experts from the ETH Zürich, the ACT Alliance and Bread for the World, PIK´s chief economist Ottmar Edenhofer will discuss how to implement equity in the framework of the Paris Agreement.

Hermann Lotze-Campen appointed to AgMIP’s new Executive Committee

10/23/2017 - The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Program (AgMIP) has just established an Executive Committee, reflecting the growing impact of scientific contributions of AgMIP. The new members are internationally recognized leaders for their sustained scientific and technical contributions to agricultural sciences. From the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hermann Lotze-Campen, Chair of Research Domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities and Professor of Sustainable Land Use and Climate Change at Humboldt University Berlin, was appointed as a new member to the Executive Committee.

“We need you”: UN climate chief to Potsdam climate scientists

10/13/2017 - Hundreds of millions of people will be affected by climate change impacts and their implications for health or migration already within the next few decades, sectors that so far often get overlooked in this context. This is one of the insights of the Impacts World Conference organised by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany this week. About 500 scientists from 67 countries were gathering at the conference with the title “Counting the true costs of climate change” to push climate impact research to the next level by better integrating socio-economic factors. At the same time, the institute celebrated its 25th anniversary hosting this meeting of the global impacts research community, in the spirit of its mission followed for a quarter century: further advancing scientific progress and communicating insights to stakeholders.

Sustainability Network SDSN discusses global responsibility and the upcoming legislative term

10/16/2017 - Leading experts for sustainable development from Germany will gather at the meeting of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Germany in Berlin to discuss the implementation of sustainable development targets (SDGs) with participants from industry, politics, and civil society. The meeting on October 26th focuses on the international responsibility of Germany, particularly in regard to the newly elected Bundestag.

Impacts World 2017 Conference

11.-13. October 2017, Potsdam. Impacts World is the leading international conference covering the diversity and depth of climate-impacts research today. IW2017 follows on from the inaugural Impacts World 2013, held in Potsdam, Germany, which brought together impacts researchers and stakeholders from across the spectrum of impacted sectors, initiating an era of truly integrated cross-sectoral climate-impacts research.

Online Course on Climate Change, Risks and Challenges now in English

10/01/2017 - How will climate change affect our lifes? What are the consequences? How can we mitigate climate change? These questions will be explored by scientists from leading German institutes during the interdisciplinary online course ClimateMOOC. The “Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)” is addressed to everybody interested and aims to impart a profound understanding of the climate system and climate change.

Cities and Climate Conference: International experts discuss a sustainable future for cities

09/14/2017 - More than 150 city experts from all over the world will come together next week in Potsdam to discuss the future of our cities under climate change. Cities are at the center of the global climate change problem. Not only are they the origin of large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, they are also vastly affected by the impacts of climate change – like extreme weather events that generate high socioeconomic costs. The ‘Cities and Climate Conference 2017’, which is taking place from the 19th-21st of September 2017 in Potsdam, will therefore discuss how cities of the future can become more sustainable and resilient.

Joint RD2/RD3 Seminar 'What you always wanted to know about 1.5C global warming'

09/14/2017 - Scientists from Research Areas 1, 2 and 3 discussed their ongoing work on the objective of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Potsdam Summer School explores the future of cities

09/04/2017 - The rapid pace of change around the world is presenting humankind and human environments with tremendous challenges. What solutions and strategies can we employ to future-proof our cities in the age of climate change? Experts from 30 countries will meet to discuss these issues with leading sustainability researchers at the 2017 Potsdam Summer School on 4 – 13 September. Their findings will be presented to the public in a memorandum on 13 September.

Kid's version of a scientific article on CO2 and crop water productivity published in "Science Journal for Kids"

08/21/2017 - Science Journal for Kids, a nonprofit organisation aimed at making environmental science accessible to kids, has adapted a paper on CO2 and crop water productivity, which is co-authored by Christoph Müller.

Unabated climate change would reverse the development gains in Asia: report

14/07/2017 - Unabated climate change would bring devastating consequences to countries in Asia and the Pacific, which could severely affect their future growth, reverse current development gains, and degrade quality of life, according to a report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Green talents at PIK

07/11/2017 - We are very pleased to welcome our Green Talents M.Sc. Wondowossen Anteneh Tegegne from Ethiopia and Dr. Hèou Maléki Badjana from Togo at RD2!

From dry to wet: Rainfall might abruptly increase in Africa’s Sahel

06/07/2017 - Climate change could turn one of Africa's driest regions into a very wet one by suddenly switching on a Monsoon circulation. For the first time, scientists find evidence in computer simulations for a possible abrupt change to heavy seasonal rainfall in the Sahel, a region that so far has been characterized by extreme dryness. They detect a self-amplifying mechanism which might kick-in beyond 1.5-2 degrees Celsius of global warming – which happens to be the limit for global temperature rise set in the Paris Climate Agreement. Although crossing this new tipping point is potentially beneficial, the change could be so big, it would be a major adaptation challenge for an already troubled region.

PIK ranked among top five climate think tanks worldwide

07/05/2017 - The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) was again ranked among the best climate think tanks worldwide. The new Climate Think Tank Ranking by the International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) places PIK among the top five climate think tanks globally and among the top three of climate thinks tanks in Europe. Altogether the ranking considers 240 cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy. Based on a solid quantitative methodology and analytical data, the ICCG lists non-university affiliated think tanks in an absolute and a standardized ranking – the first measures the think tank’s efficiency in per capita/researcher terms, whilst the latter measures performance regardless of their efficiency and hence size.

Networking and training: PhD-Day at PIK

05/10/2017 - A whole day to get together, share experiences and train in different science related fields: The doctoral candidates of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research met for a conference recently to discuss their work and compare notes with each other on their theses. Next to new PhD candidates that introduced their work to their colleagues, the day focused on several inputs on topics like communication, time management, slide writing and presentation techniques. There are currently 73 young researchers from 18 countries working on their PhDs across all four PIK research domains.

"This decision marks the end of the American century" - PIK and the Trump effect

06/09/2017 - Last week US President Donald Trump has announced that he will leave the Paris climate agreement. This step not only triggered a wave of indignation around the world, but also led to a media rush on the scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. They were able to assess the decision and the importance of the Paris agreement for climate protection.

Fires, storms, insects: climate change increases risks for forests worldwide

05/31/2017 - Droughts, fires and wind as well as insects and fungal attacks: all of them result in stress for the forests of the Earth – and they are all influenced by climate change. About a third of worldwide land surface is covered by forests, but knowledge about how disruptive factors that affect them interact with one another in the context of global climate change is still lacking, as these are often analyzed separately and on a local scale. Now for the first time, an international team of scientists has comprehensively examined possible climate impacts on disturbances in forests. The team did this on a basis of more than 600 research papers of the last 30 years. Published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, their results show that increasing risks for forests have to be expected in the future.

RD2 Seminar on "Climate Services & Solutions"

04/24/2017 - The RD2 Seminar on Climate Services & Solutions took place on April the 24th 2017. Chris Kollas introduced the topic, followed by presentations from Jürgen Kropp, Ines Blumenthal, Frank Wechsung and Bernd Hezel.