Ups-and-downs of Indian monsoon rainfall likely to increase under warming
06/20/2013 - Day-to-day rainfall in India might become much more variable due to climate change – potentially putting millions of poor farmers and the country’s agricultural productivity at risk. The Indian monsoon is a complex system which is likely to change under future global warming. While it is in the very nature of weather to vary, the question is how much and whether we can deal with it. Extreme rainfall, for example, bears the risk of flooding, and crop failure. Computer simulations with a comprehensive set of 20 state-of-the-art climate models now consistently show that Indian monsoon daily variability might increase, according to a study just published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
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Top rank amongst European climate think tanks
06/19/2013 - Of all European think tanks focusing on climate change issues, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) holds the first place, according to a new analysis. The ranking is based on the record of publications and events. It builds on actual data, not just a survey, the authors from the International Center for Climate Governance, Italy, point out.
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Art and science met in „climate city“ Bremerhaven
06/17/2013 - For two weekends, climate was in the center of attention in Bremerhaven. The festival ODYSSEE: KLIMA of the city theater Bremerhaven presented a number of artists and scientists, among them some experts from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research to introduce their projects.
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Summerly "Smartest Night of the Year"
06/11/2013 - Bright sunshine and a varied program attracted many visitors at this year´s 13th Long Night of Science at Potsdam´s Telegrafenberg. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research took part with a whole number of choices for curious people of all ages – this year for the first time in Berlin as well. The program included everything from a panel discussion on climate impacts in Germany to movies to crime fiction. Yet the historic buildings in the park turned out to be the night´s brightest star, considering the great weather.
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Compensation fund for climate change impacts: study explores fund architecture
06/10/2013 - International climate policy is increasingly aware of the need of compensation for “loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change”, as it has been put in the final text of the recent world climate summit in Doha, Qatar. However, a practical mechanism is missing. Now scientists outline options for a voluntary, international compensation fund with specialized, independent climate courts to elucidate how damages should be actually compensated. The purpose of the fund is to compensate those who experience anthropogenic climate impacts in a structured way.
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Identifying hotspots: Climate Impacts World Conference
05/30/2013 - Researchers identified a number of hotspots both of global climate change impacts and the science that deals with them. New analyses presented at the Impacts World 2013 Conference this week in Potsdam, Germany, revealed that the Amazon region, east Africa and the Mediterranean will experience serious change if greenhouse-gas emissions continue unabated. More than 300 scientists and stakeholders from 40 countries spent four days discussing the path forward for research on the impacts of climate change – one key outcome is the joining of forces between impacts researchers with economists to assess possible future loss and damage.
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CO2 removal can lower costs of climate protection
04/12/2013 - Directly removing CO2 from the air has the potential to alter the costs of climate change mitigation. It could allow prolonging greenhouse-gas emissions from sectors like transport that are difficult, thus expensive, to turn away from using fossil fuels. And it may help to constrain the financial burden on future generations, a study now published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows. It focuses on the use of biomass for energy generation, combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS). According to the analysis, carbon dioxide removal could be used under certain requirements to alleviate the most costly components of mitigation, but it would not replace the bulk of actual emissions reductions.
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From Potsdam to Pakistan: Confronting vulnerability by building national climate research capacities
05/24/2013 - Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change – risks range from the disastrous 2010 floodings that acted as a wake-up call to retreating glaciers impacting freshwater supply. To confront this challenge, the new Centre for Climate Research & Development (CCRD) took up its work this month – a substantial effort to build up indigenous scientific capacities in a place where substantial climate change impacts are actually happening. The centre has been developed in very close cooperation with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). A five-year-agreement envisages joint research projects and the exchange of scientists.
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PIK’s junior scientists address uncertainties
05/10/2013 - „Nothing is as uncertain as the future“ – about 100 aspiring junior scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research discussed uncertainties in climate impact research at their annual „PhD Day“ this week. At the fourth meeting of that kind, the scientists talked about various aspects of uncertainties in their research in „World Café“ style, switching discussion groups and topics regularly to exchange views with each other. Tony Patt from the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) gave a keynote on uncertainty and the science/policy interface.
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