Land and ocean carbon sinks weakening, and other new insights from climate science
29/10/2025 – The planet’s natural carbon sinks are reaching critical limits, absorbing fewer emissions than expected as climate change is weakening their capacity according to the 2025 edition of “10 New Insights in Climate Science”. The report warns global climate targets could face major setbacks as forests, soils, and the oceans lose strength as carbon sinks. The annual update is authored by 70 leading scientists from 21 countries, including researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
Read More
“State of the climate” 2025: Earth’s vital signs worsen, science shows options for livable future
29.10.2025 – 22 of the planet’s 34 vital signs are at record levels, with many of them continuing to trend sharply in the wrong direction. This is the message of the sixth issue of the annual “State of the climate” report. The report was prepared by an international coalition with contribution from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and led by Oregon State University scientists. Published today in BioScience, it cites global data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in proposing “high-impact” strategies.
Read More
Annual heat-related deaths surge to 546 000 in the last decade due to climate change
New global findings in the 9th annual indicator report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reveal that the continued dependence on fossil fuels and limited progress in climate adaptation are affecting people’s health, livelihoods, and contributing to a rise in heat-related deaths. Scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) led work using artificial intelligence to map the development of scientific literature on climate and health to in the report. The report is funded by the Wellcome trust and led by the University College London with contributions from 128 leading experts from 71 institutions worldwide.
Read More
PIK scientist Alexander Popp lead author for IPBES Second Global Assessment Report
28.10.2025 – The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has appointed leading biodiversity experts to produce the Second Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Among them is Alexander Popp from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
Read More
How offsets are hampering decarbonisation and undermining carbon markets
15.10.2025 - Ahead of COP30 in Brasil, an international team of leading climate policy experts including Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research Director Johan Rockström, warn in a commentary in Nature that low-quality carbon offsets are undermining global decarbonisation efforts.
Read More
Bleaching, Melting, Slowing: New report tracks growing risks of Earth system tipping points
13.10.2025 - Widespread coral reef die-off marks the world’s first climate tipping point, according to a new report by 160 scientists. The Global Tipping Points Report 2025 highlights mounting risks across Earth’s systems, from melting glaciers and ice fields to slowing ocean currents, ice sheets and rainforests under pressure. The report was led by the University of Exeter with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and 85 other institutions.
Read More
EAT-Lancet report: food systems breach planetary boundaries, transformation can deliver health and equity
03.10.2025 - Food production is the primary driver for breaching five of the planetary boundaries and accounts for around 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while billions still lack access to healthy diets. This is the result of a new EAT-Lancet Commission report, the most comprehensive scientific analysis of global food systems to date, with contributions by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The report shows that shifting to the Planetary Health Diet could prevent up to 15 million premature deaths per year and cut food-related emissions by more than half.
Read More
Four major Earth system components are losing stability
01.10.2025 – Four key parts of the Earth’s climate system are destabilising, according to a new study with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Researchers analysed the interconnections of four major tipping elements: the Greenland ice sheet, the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the Amazon rainforest and the South American monsoon system. All four show signs of diminished resilience, raising the risk of abrupt and potentially irreversible changes.
Read More
Jan Steckel: professorship in Political Economy at TU Munich
01.10.2025 – Jan Steckel, working group leader at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), will take on a new role on 1 October this year. He has been appointed Professor of Political Economy of Climate Policy at the Technical University of Munich (TU Munich) and is setting up a corresponding working group at PIK. This move strengthens PIK’s social science profile.
Read More
Johan Rockström addresses heads of state during United Nations General Assembly: “failure is not inevitable, it is a choice”
24.09.2025 – Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) addressed heads of state, ministers and other dignitaries in New York today.
Read More
In Brussels, PIK explains social flanking of the new emissions trading system
24.09.2025 – How can we socially cushion the higher fuel and heating costs expected to emerge with the second EU emissions trading system, starting in 2027? This was the topic of an event held today by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in collaboration with Catholic welfare organisation Caritas, and the climate and social policy spokespersons for the EPP Christian Democrat group in the European Parliament, Peter Liese and Dennis Radtke. PIK Director Ottmar Edenhofer presented the idea of climate money for buildings, developed by researchers at the institute.
Read More
Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached – ocean acidification joins the danger zone
24.09.2025 - A new report from the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) reveals that 7 of the 9 critical Earth system boundaries have now been breached, one more than last year.
Read More
How climate policy can be made socially just and enforceable worldwide
24.09.2025 – A model study now explores how carbon pricing with redistribution can help the energy transition and the climate worldwide, while increasing welfare and reducing economic inequality – which is important for enforceability. According to the study, good results would be achieved by a globally uniform carbon price paired with moderate financial transfers to poorer countries, or by a carbon price differentiated by country with domestic revenue recycling. The study was co-authored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the top journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
Read More
Questions and answers about Nature study on economic damages
04/09/2025 – To address questions about the scientific critiques of the Nature study “The economic commitment of climate change” and the subsequent revision of the paper, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has compiled the following information.
Read More
How measures to protect the environment and reduce the rich–poor divide interact
01.09.2025 – Governments around the world are grappling with the challenges of environmental degradation and economic inequality. But until now, there has been no comprehensive analysis of how these two problems are interrelated, and how policies to protect the environment and reduce the rich–poor divide complement or hinder each other. The study “The Economics of Inequality and the Environment” looks at this interaction with a literature analysis. It was co-authored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and has now been published in the renowned Journal of Economic Literature.
Read More
Possible North Atlantic overturning circulation shutdown after 2100 in high-emission future
28.08.2025 - Under high-emission scenarios, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a key system of ocean currents that also includes the Gulf Stream, could shut down after the year 2100. This is the conclusion of a new study, with contributions by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The shutdown would cut the ocean’s northward heat supply, causing summer drying and severe winter extremes in northwestern Europe and shifts in tropical rainfall belts.
Read More
Seventh Assessment Report of the IPCC has nine Lead Authors from the Potsdam Institute
21.08.2025 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has now appointed 664 experts from 111 countries to produce the “Seventh Assessment Report” on the state of climate science, which is highly relevant for policy advice. Amongst them are nine Lead Authors from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The new Assessment Report will be published in 2028 and 2029. It will comprise several thousand pages and be divided into three volumes prepared by scientific Working Groups, plus a synthesis report.
Read More
70 years of data show adaptation reducing Europe’s flood losses
18.08.2025 - Humans adapt to floods through private measures, early warning systems, emergency preparedness and other solutions. A new attribution study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that such adaptation other than structural flood defences has reduced economic losses from flooding by 63 percent and fatalities by 52 percent since 1950. The study analyses seven decades of historical flood impacts across Europe and demonstrates how adaptation measures have reduced damage over time.
Read More
60 percent of the world’s land area is in a precarious state
15.08.2025 – A new study maps the planetary boundary of “functional biosphere integrity” in spatial detail and over centuries. It finds that 60 percent of global land areas are now already outside the locally defined safe zone, and 38 percent are even in the high-risk zone. The study was led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) together with BOKU University in Vienna and published in the renowned journal One Earth.
Read More
Tropical bird populations reduced by a third since 1980, compared to a world without climate change
11.08.2025 – Bird populations in the tropics have dropped by roughly a third (25-38 percent) since 1980 due to intensifying heat extremes, compared to a world without climate change, with some species having declined in abundance by over 50 percent, according to new study published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the University of Queensland and Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
Read More
Nature study on economic damages from climate change revised
06. 08. 2025 - In response to feedback from other scientists, the authors of the paper “The economic commitment of climate change” at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have revised their analysis and are making it open access for the wider scientific community to engage with. PIK welcomes the critical scrutiny published as a “Matters Arising” in Nature as an important part of the scientific debate, and is committed to continuing to uphold the highest standards of research integrity and transparency.
Read More
PIK develops a new global, high resolution data set of atmospheric rivers
04.08.2025– Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have developed a new data set of the Earth’s atmospheric rivers – PIK Atmospheric River Trajectories (PIKART) – improving on the robustness and scope of existing global catalogues. Published today in the journal JGR: Atmospheres, the data set details atmospheric river activity between 1940-2023 at a high resolution: to half a degree and at six-hour intervals.
Read More
How sustainable climate policy and sound public finances go hand in hand
30.07.2025 - Measures to fight global heating justify additional government debt – to the extent that they prevent carbon emissions and the resulting climate damage. This is the core idea behind a “green-golden rule for climate policy” that has now been presented in the German journal Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik. The study was led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). It finds that if German climate targets are strictly adhered to, a total of 161 billion euros in new debt for climate protection in the country by 2030 is fully justifiable, and economically sensible.
Read More
International cooperation on fossil fuel levies could raise billions for climate finance
30.07.2025 - In the wake of newly agreed climate finance targets in Baku at COP29, climate economists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have analysed the effects of cooperative levies between smaller groups of countries on fossil fuels. They find such levies could raise USD 66 billion per year for financing emission reductions in developing countries. Further initiatives such as pricing emissions from international aviation and maritime shipping could increase participation by countries and raise contributions to USD 200 billion per year.
Read More
Hospital and nursing home food undermines both patient and planetary health, new study shows
24.07.2025 - Instead of supporting recovery, food served in hospitals and nursing homes may actually undermine patients’ and residents’ health – and the environment – according to a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health. Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Stanford University, have found that meals in healthcare settings include too few healthy, plant-based foods and too many unhealthy and unsustainable options, making them inadequate for both individual and planetary health.
Read More
Data-based analysis confirms: Paris Agreement temperature limits increasingly out of reach
21.07.2025 - A new study involving researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) provides a purely data-based estimate of when the temperature limit set by the Paris Agreement – well below 2°C, striving for 1.5°C – could be exceeded, if human-induced global heating continues approximately linearly. This analysis, based solely on observed temperate data, supports the key findings of more complex climate models.
Read More
Resilient and stable Earth system is critical for human health - Scientists call for unified approach
16.07.2025 - Leading scientists from the Planetary Boundaries and Planetary Health communities have proposed a common scientific framework to better understand how Earth System changes like climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution threaten the foundations of human health. Their joint perspective calls for stronger integration of knowledge across disciplines and scales. The comment, now published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet, was initiated by Johan Rockström and Oskar Masztalerz from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research together with Sam Myers, Director of the Planetary Health Alliance and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health.
Read More
Weather station in Potsdam shows driest first half-year since measurements began over 130 years ago
01.07.2025 - In the first half of 2025, rainfall levels at the weather station in Potsdam on Telegrafenberg were likely the lowest since records began in 1893. The station is a central reference point for climate observation. It is the only meteorological station in the world with a comprehensive measurement programme that has been running continuously for over 100 years. This allows current weather trends in temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration to be compared to longer-term climate trends.
Read More
Pace of warming has doubled since 1980s
19.06.2025 – The rate of global heating in the period 2012-2024 has roughly doubled from the 1980s according to the latest peer-reviewed update of “Indicators of Global Climate Change” published today in Earth System Science Data with contributions from scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts (PIK).
Read More
PIK researcher Linus Mattauch wins European environmental economics award
18.06.2025 – A prestigious award has been presented to Linus Mattauch, head of the Societal Transition and Well-being research group at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) today honoured him with the “European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty”. The association emphasised the policy relevance of his research and the high number of publications.
Read More
