Climate scientist writes for children, and other new books
12/30/2011 – Several intriguing books have been published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this year. The probably most unusual one is by Stefan Rahmstorf, co-chair of the Earth System Analysis research domain: He wrote a book on climate and weather for children. Other books cover topics ranging from extreme events to China to religion – to name just a few.
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Proposals for reducing emissions must balance with development needs
12/22/2011 – How to integrate developing countries into global CO2 reduction schemes is subject of an ongoing debate. An approach for balancing climate change mitigation and the need for development is now being presented by the North South Project of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study shows that emissions of societies up to now are closely linked to their human development levels under parallel consideration of the 2 degrees target. The 2 degrees guardrail by 2050 has been accepted by states around the world in order to prevent dangerous climate change.
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Excellence at PIK
12/22/2011 - The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of the most important scientific institutions in this field of research worldwide; many international scientists are therefore drawn to Potsdam. A manifestation of the excellent work done at PIK is the growing number of professorships held by PIK scientists or to where they move on.
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„Providing information for transformation”
12/19/2011 – This year has been “a good year of good science,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), at the conclusion of the 2011 Research Days. This annual gathering of all PIK scientists is an opportunity to discuss research results and new projects. One of the latter is a big intercomparison project of global warming impact models that will be relevant for the 2014 assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For socioeconomic scenarios as well, an intercomparison project has been launched. Both are coordinated by PIK.
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Climate knowledge for computer game
12/19/2011 - With two digital projects, staff members from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) supported professional programmers with their expertise. For the computer game “Anno 2070”, scientists of the research project Climate Media Factory, funded by the federal government, discussed scenarios of global warming with game developers and informed them about the latest state of climate science. PIK contributed a problem statement for a programming contest as well. Both projects were about knowledge transfer.
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The dilemma of geoengineering
12/13/2011 – End-of-the-chimney fixes for anthropogenic global warming are becoming increasingly popular in public debate. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), now sheds some light on the fundamental dilemma of geoengineering in a comment published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “This is a tale of two fairies: the rather wicked one conjures up solar radiation management, and the tolerably good one delivers CO2 removal through schemes like industrial ‘air capture,” says Schellnhuber. The latter however would generate “a multitrillion dollar bill,” he points out.
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Durban: an ambivalent outcome
12/11/2011 – The outcome of the Durban summit is ambivalent, according to leading scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), interviewed by various media. The world map of climate politics has changed, said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. “China is not speaking for the poor countries any longer, which have joined forces with Europe instead.” The EU and Germany “had a strong showing in Durban,” adds Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist of PIK. However, both are stressing the fact that too little has been achieved at the negotiations. The more than 190 states did not agree on a binding reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Science and Policy: Dialogue in Durban
12/06/2011 - Leading policy-makers and researchers met today in Durban to urge climate negotiators to acknowledge scientific findings and address the sustainability challenge. Amongst the participants of this dialogue were Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa and Co-Chair of the UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, and the European Union’s Climate Comissioner Conny Hedegaard, as well as Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics. The event was hosted by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Johan Rockström, Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute.
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Global warming “not slowing down”
12/06/2011 - A new analysis of the five leading global temperature data sets provides further evidence for climate change. Despite some differences between the measurement curves they indicate an almost identical, steady global warming trend over the past 30 years. The researchers factored out three of the main factors that account for short-term fluctuations in global temperature: el Niño, volcanic eruptions and variations in the sun’s brightness. “Differences between the five data sets reside, to a large extent, in their short-term variability,” says Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, one of the study’s authors. ”After the variability is removed, all five of them are very similar.”
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Scheduling for Durban - and beyond
11/24/2011 – At the moment, hardly anyone expects a breakthrough of the climate summit in Durban. Even before the negotiators from around the world come together in South Africa at the end of November, some observers already turn away bored. Especially for this reason, scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) direct attention to questions that go beyond the summit with a whole series of media briefings these days. What happens if nothing happens in Durban? That is the natural scientific view on climate change. And what works if nothing works in Durban? That is the view on economy and politics. New scientific findings show ever clearer what the risks of resigning to human-made global warming could be – and what chances climate protection still offers.
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European Parliament: towards a low carbon economy
11/11/2011 - To support its discussions about pathways towards a competitive low carbon economy, the European Parliament (EP) recently organised a workshop in Brussels. Daniel Klingenfeld from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research contributed the scientific view. Other experts were from the International Energy Agency, Business Europe, and the European Commission. The members of the EP's Committee on the Environment announced they will use the results of the workshop to propose concrete measures that the Commission should introduce within three years if the 2050 target is to be realised.
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Schellnhuber receives renowned Volvo Environment Prize
11/04/2011 - The Volvo Environment Prize was awarded to the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, in Stockholm yesterday. The internationally recognized prize for “outstanding innovations or scientific discoveries” is in its 20th year and is endowed with 160.000€. Schellnhuber is the first German to receive the prize.
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Strengthening links between Indian and German researchers
10/28/2011 - Indische Wissenschaftler wollen ihre Verbindungen zum Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK) ausbauen. Das Institut für sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Wandel in Bangalore hat Jürgen Kropp eingeladen, bei einer hochrangig besetzten Konferenz vergangene Woche die Hauptrede zu halten sowie die Eröffnung und die Schlussbemerkungen zu machen. Kropp ist Leiter des Nord-Süd-Projekts im PIK-Forschungsbereich Klimawirkung und Vulnerabilität. Unter den mehr als 200 Teilnehmern war der Premierminister und der Präsident des Bundesstaates Karnataka. Das Treffen stand unter dem Motto „Kooperation zwischen Deutschland und Indien stärken“ und wurde von der Humboldt Stiftung unterstützt.
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Thawing Tundra, endangered crops - new books by PIK-scientists
10/26/2011 - How can climate types be categorized to comprehend climate changes ore precisely? How can crops adapt to a changing climate? And where to find comprehensive analyses and questions on ecological, political and economic aspects of climate change in one volume? Several contributions to books of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) recently published give some answers.
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Climate Change a core topic at the World Health Summit
10/26/2011 - What are the consequences of climate change for public health? The World Health Summit made this question, rather neglected in public debate, one of its core topics this week. This was a cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK): research domain leader Wolfgang Lucht was one of the two keynote speakers.
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“Paying to avoid”?
10/17/2011 - A high-ranking delegation from Ecuador, led by Ivonne Baki, Head of the Yasuní Initiative Negotiating Team, visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) last thursday to promote the so called Yasuní Initiative. The Yasuní Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) Initiative introduces the idea of “paying to avoid” to preserve the Yasuní National Park in Ecuador by leaving its newly found oil reserves in the ground.
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Researchers put new spin on world´s water cycle
10/13/2011 - The final report of the Water and Global Change programme (WATCH), an extensive analysis of the world’s water resources, is made available today, significantly expanding the understanding of climate change and land use impacts on the global hydrological cycle. A total of 25 institutions from 14 European countries participated in this project, including scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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„Tireless admonisher“ receives Federal Cross of Merit
10/06/2011 - Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), was awarded the Order of Merit, first class, of the Federal Republic of Germany by President Christian Wulff this tuesday.
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Art meets science at historic ensemble
10/04/2011 - „The most beautiful science campus of the continent“ is now even prettier: the small cupola of the former photographic refractor on Telegraphenberg was inaugurated – and with it the “Artist in Residence” program, which encourages a dialogue between the sciences and arts.
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Water management: „China is open for advice”
09/26/2011 - More than 140 million people live there, and businesses are booming: water is getting scarce in the Haihe river basin in northern China. High-ranking representatives of the local Water Conservancy Commission now came to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to obtain reports on water management constrained by climate change. For two years, experts from the region – which encompasses the large cities Beijing and Tianjin – have been partnering with those of PIK. Modelling of sustainable use of resources, once developed for the Elbe river region in Germany, is applied to some particularly dry parts of the Haihe.
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Schellnhuber: CCS technology “should not be demonized“
09/22/2011 - The controversial issue of carbon capture and storage, CCS, is on the agenda of the German Bundesrat this week. However, the public debate about this technology is characterized by a variety of fears. It is in this context that the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, is highlighting the relevance of the sequestration of CO2 for climate change mitigation. “Scientific scenarios show that without CCS, avoiding dangerous climate change will be considerably more expensive," says Schellnhuber. “Heavy investment in other technologies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases would then become necessary.”
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Cooperation with the biggest university of the southern hemisphere
09/09/2011 - The biggest university of the southern hemisphere, the Universidade de Sao Paulo, takes part in a premiere: the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Berlin Humboldt University (HU) have founded the first ever German-Brazilian Graduate College – supported as well by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research and its division for climate research and geoecology in Macau. “Dynamic processes in complex networks” are going to be – according to the College’s name – the object of research.
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„Brown coal is not sustainable“: Researchers attend state government session
09/01/2011 - If Brandenburg wants to reach its climate targets, it cannot just carry on relying on power generation from brown coal. This, and more, has been stated by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week when attending the state government session. “Such an open and intensive dialogue between science and politics is anything but a matter of course,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. For the fourth time already, Brandenburg’s prime minister Matthias Platzeck invited Schellnhuber and his colleagues for a discussion on energy policy and climate change.
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“Both sides benefit”: Chinese-German summer school
08/29/2011 - Together with climate scientists from Beijing, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) invited participants from Germany and China to take part in a summer school. The main focus is on water management in the light of climate change – a pressing issue in many Chinese river regions. On the Chinese side, the National Climate Centre is the academic partner, being the central institution doing research in this field. More than 40 students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, the University of Frankfurt, the Bundeswehr University Munich and other institutions are taking part in the ten-day event.
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"Coming out"
08/10/2011 - Scientists should do science, not appear in the public sphere – that’s a popular view. This week, philosophers and physicists, economists and ecologists discussed this issue in a workshop initiated by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance. “Science has to constantly follow the principle of truth”, says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. “And that is exactly why it has a societal responsibility.”
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Research on algal blooms honoured
07/14/2011 - Severe algal bloom can lead to the collapse of ecosystems in lakes. How global warming might trigger this phenomenon was the subject of research by Veronika Huber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Her work has been honoured by the University of Potsdam through the award of the Michelson Prize – an annual award for the best PhD thesis in natural sciences. This honour is a further incentive for the successful promotion of young scientists at PIK.
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“Australia in a hot world”
07/12/2011 - Right in the middle of a heated debate in Australia about the carbon tax just announced by the government, a scientific event in Melbourne this week sheds light on the consequences of climate change for down under. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been invited by Australian climate scientists to give the opening lecture as well as the public keynote speech plus some concluding remarks at the conference “Four degrees or more? Australia in a hot world”.
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Indian Minister of Environment and Forests proposes science and politics to meet in Potsdam
07/04/2011 - Leading scientists and politicians from all over the world are to debate new pathways for international climate negotiations – this was suggested by the Indian Minister of Environment and Forests during a visit to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research this Monday. In time before the next round of negotiations of the global community of states will take place in Durban, South Africa, before the end of the year, Ramesh wants stakeholders to exchange views with the sciences. The question of a fair share of rights for greenhouse gas emissions could be central. “The work of the Potsdam Institute in this field has been groundbreaking”, Ramesh said.
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Exiting from nuclear power, entering a new energy system
05/06/2011 - Exiting from nuclear power today is a consensus in Germany. It's less clear, however, how entering a new energy system should look like. What are the costs of phasing out nuclear power, depending on the timeline? Which power plant capacities have to be built using not just renewable energy sources but also additional power generation from fossil fuels? Answers to these questions will be given by a new study of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management of the Leipzig University. The results are going to be presented on friday, june 10th, in Berlin.
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More storms, more floods in Germany
05/25/2011 - Weather extremes caused by climate change will significantly increase damage in Germany. For the first time, scientists now developed concrete scenarios on possible effects up to the end of this century. “Major floods will appear two or three times more often in the next decades”, says Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarbe from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Storm damages could potentially rise by more than 50 percent.
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Sustainable change needs a new social contract
04/07/2011 - To achieve the transition to an “age of efficiency and renewables”, a scientific advisory council calls for nothing less but a reconstruction of civil society. This can only be achieved through a new kind of interaction between governments and citizens, with citizens being more involved in political decisions. As stated today by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) during the presentation of its flagship report “World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability”, massive investments in energy transformation, changes in consumption habits and the imposition of global fees on greenhouse gas emissions will be necessary in order to meet the challenge.
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"The dictatorship of now": Schellnhuber in Spiegel magazine
03/22/2011 – In the light of the nuclear tragedy in Japan Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, brings forward the idea of a new social contract. In an interview with Spiegel magazine, he explains why the rights of coming generations have to be taken more seriously. “Once for all we have to decide to leave our descendants more than just nuclear risks and climate change”, Schellnhuber says. “This means empathy across space and time.”
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Graduate School on land use scores well in competition for excellence
03/03/2011 - In the competition for excellence of the German Research Foundation the graduate school 'FutureLand' qualified for the finals. About 80 PhD students shall do research on issues such as climate change, agriculture, deforestation or loss of biodiversity. The project has been developed mainly by scientists from Berlin an Potsdam, led by the Humboldt Universität (HU). The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of the significant contributors, among other independent research institutes.
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Humboldt fellow from Berkeley does research at PIK
02/25/2011 - Rice yields and electricity demand – these are two topics Max Auffhammer hopes to make good progress on while staying at PIK. Being a resource economist, he focuses on the distributional impacts of climate change. Auffhammer is a professor at the University of California in Berkeley and known for numerous seminal contributions to the science of environmental change. A fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, he chose PIK to spend a sabbatical which started this February. “PIK’s reputation as a world leader in climate impact research made this an easy choice”, he says. “I was very much attracted by the interdisciplinary group of scholars here.”
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Chief Economist of PIK speaks to EU top officials
02/10/2011 - A strong message for green growth has been sent from the Low Carbon Prosperity Summit in Brussels this week. It assembled more than 300 representatives of EU institutions and of corporations such as Shell and Nestlé. Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics and Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist and vice-director of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) gave talks on low carbon competitiveness. The event was attended by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy.
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Building Exhibition 2020: PIK councils Berlin city government
02/09/2011 - The answers that urban planning can give to questions of climate change are one of the central issues of the International Building Exhibition in 2020, scheduled to happen in Berlin. Fritz Reusswig of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been asked by the city government of Berlin to join a team of seven experts who are expected to develop some ideas. On february 10th, Reusswig, a sociologist, will participate in the first public discussion with architects and activists. "Big Cities are amongst the most important origins of global warming", Reusswig says. "So they offer the chance to actually do something against climate change."
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PIK ranked as top environmental Think Tank outside the US
02/04/2011 - Top European environmental think tank 2010 is what the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has been classified in an global ranking. In the research area environment it has been placed on the fifth rank worldwide, behind four US-American institutes. The winner is the World Resources Institute in Washingont D.C. The PIK scored slightly better than last year when it was number seven behind six other institutions, all of them from the US. More than 5000 think tanks in different categories participated in this ranking.
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Asking questions: New president of Leibniz-Association visits PIK
04/02/2011 - The new president of the Leibniz-Association asked quite some questions when he visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week. Which kind of data get included in the climate models developed by the institute, he asked the research domain chairs. About the details of their contracts he questioned PhD-students. Karl Ulrich Mayer, having started last year as leader of the "Scientific Association Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz", didn't just ask in order to be polite. He really wants to know what is going on at PIK - one of the 87 members of the Leibniz-Association.
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"Below two degrees": annual conference of Climate-Service-Center
01/21/2011 - The Climate-Service-Center put their annual conference under the caption “below two degrees”. The CSC, which is a partner of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), invited numerous experts to debate how to limit global warming. Amongst the participants this friday in Leipzig there is Klaus Töpfer of the german Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. Daniel Klingenfeld of PIK gives a talk about "Fairness and physics - ways towards the goal of two degrees". He's on a discussion panel with representatives of the logistics company Deutsche Post/DHL, the carbuilder Volvo and the Helmholtz Centre for environmental research.
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Earth System Models of high computational efficiency
01/20/2011 - Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity have been at the center of a workshop in Potsdam this week. Participants from ten countries discussed the future of these models and their contribution to the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In contrast to state of the art Earth System Models, those with intermediate complexity show high computational efficiency, or relatively low cost. “For this reason we can perfom with these models more and longer future projections”, Andrey Ganopolski from the Potsdam Institut für Climate Impact Research (PIK) says.
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IPCC renewables experts meet in Potsdam
01/19/2011 - For some fine-tuning of the much awaited IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources (SRREN), about 30 scientists from all over the world met at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week. Participants came from Argentina, China, Nepal, India, the USA, and other countries to discuss the report, currently spanning roughly one thousand pages.
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New Head of Administration starts
01/10/2011 - At the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs), funded by the german federal government, he was head of administration. At the Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze (Centre for International Peace Operations), affiliated with the german federal foreign office, he served in the same function. Now Sven Oliver Arndt brings all this excellent experience to the PIK where this month he starts as – what else – head of administration.
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Infrastructure summit: Levermann puts emphasis on climate issues
04/14/2011 - "Whoever is planning infrastructure without paying attention to climate issues could just as well skip it" - with this statement Anders Levermann of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research made a point at a high-ranking conference in Berlin this week. Amongst the participants of the so-called infrastructure summit were the German minister for transport and construction, the CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, the director of German Telekom's T-Systems, and the vice president of the Federal Network Agency. Levermann, a professor of dynamics of the climate system, gave the concluding keynote speech.
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Potential of renewable energy: PIK-chief economist presents IPCC-report
05/12/2011 – Close to 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by 2050, if backed by public policies. The share of renewable energy in the future global energy mix differs substantially among scientific scenarios. But a comprehensive review led by Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the working group on mitigation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – also being the chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research – outlines the large potential of renewable energy sources to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases and anthropogenic climate change.
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Detlef Sprinz appointed professor at Potsdam University
05/13/2011 - Detlef Sprinz, senior scientist with the research domain “Transdisciplinary Concepts and Methods” of PIK, has been appointed to be professor at Potsdam University recently.
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PIK welcomes Mexico, Ethiopia and Norway
05/13/2011 - High-ranking international guests visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research this week. As different as the countries where they come from may be, they agree in their interest in the work of the institute with its transdisciplinary approach and focus on climate research that makes it one of the world´s leading institutions.
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Long Night of Science: thousands of visitors at Telegraphenberg
05/31/2011 – The “Smartest Night of the Year” took place for the 11th time this year and attracted a lot of visitors this weekend. Next to scientific talks and guided tours, the “little climate princess”, a play for children, found great approval.
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