Latest News

Delaying climate policy would triple short-term mitigation costs

12/09/2013 - Further delay in the implementation of comprehensive international climate policies could substantially increase the short-term costs of climate change mitigation. Global economic growth would be cut back by up to 7 percent within the first decade after climate policy implementation if the current international stalemate is continued until 2030 -- compared to 2 percent if a climate agreement is reached by 2015 already, a study by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows. Higher costs would in turn increase the threshold for decision-makers to start the transition to a low-carbon economy. Thus, to keep climate targets within reach it seems to be most relevant to not further postpone mitigation, the researchers conclude.
Read More

More than 500 million people might face increasing water scarcity

10/08/2013 - Both freshwater availability for many millions of people and the stability of ecosystems such as the Siberian tundra or Indian grasslands are put at risk by climate change. Even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, 500 million people could be subject to increased water scarcity – while this number would grow by a further 50 percent if greenhouse-gas emissions are not cut soon. At 5 degrees global warming almost all ice-free land might be affected by ecosystem change. This is shown by complementary studies now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
Read More

Water management in China: High-ranking delegation discusses with scientists

09/16/2013 - A high-ranking group of Chinese experts visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) for discussions about water management under the conditions of climate change. The Haihe River Commission's delegation was led by its General Director Ren Xianshao, who is directly linked to the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic. Both sides discussed how a new cooperation project on the river basin of Luan can be realised. This river basin supplies Tianjin with water – the third largest city of China.
Read More

„Nature“ features portrait of Ottmar Edenhofer

09/19/2013 - The renowned scientific journal this week features an unusual article – a portrait of Ottmar Edenhofer. He’s not just vice-president and chief-economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research but also co-chair of the IPCC’s working group on mitigation of climate change. It is this position that the article highlights. Next week, the first part of the IPCC’s new assessement report will be published in Stockholm – it is about the physical science basis, summarizing the state of science after half a decade of intense research. The working group 3 is scheduled to present its results April next year, in Berlin.
Read More

“The body of evidence is overwhelming”: Prominent climate scientists issue stark statement

09/17/2013 - Two weeks prior to the launch of the first section of the latest IPCC’s report on climate change, twelve members of the newly established Earth League – a global initiative of prominent climate scientists – have jointly published a stark statement. “The body of evidence indicating that our civilisation has already caused significant global warming is overwhelming,” they argue.
Read More

Climate game successfully crowdfunded

09/18/2013 - The crowdfunding campaign for a new edition of the climate board game KEEP COOL has been closed successfully. 353 supporters paid altogether more than 13,000 Euros into the platform Startnext. Thanks to its fans, the game will be available again for schools and universities, organisations and private players in November 2013.
Read More

Science meets music – the Staatskapelle Berlin at Telegrafenberg

09/13/2013 - Soloists from the Staatskapelle Berlin will come to Telegrafenberg Potsdam for a charity concert of a very special kind tonight to support an environmental protection project. The "orchestra of change” wants to break open old habits and that not only musically – the concert will take place in the dark of the unique atmosphere of the cupola of the “Great Refractor”. Host will be Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) who will accompany the evening with scientific insights. Under a huge astronomical telescope, the past will meet the present, the guests will hear works of Johann Sebastian Bach and modern composers like Eugène Ysaÿe, Daniel Schnyder and László Dubrovay.
Read More

Income more important for carbon footprint than metropolitan living

09/11/2013 - Socio-economic drivers like income, education, car ownership or household size seem to be much more important for the carbon footprint of local areas than geographic and infrastructural drivers, a study by Jan Minx from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and his colleagues shows. Using data from the United Kingdom, the scientists compared consumption-based carbon footprints of 434 municipalities across the country with territorial CO2 emission estimates and found that – whether rural or urban – the way of living makes the real difference.
Read More

"Energiewende": Cost Driver or Climate Rescuer?

08/30/2013 - One of the greatest challenges for the new federal government to be in office as of autumn is - independent of its political composition – the energy turnaround. In the target triangle of food security, efficiency and sustainability, tension is increasing. At the background meeting of the German Climate Consortium last week, the central question therefore was “Energiewende: Cost driver or climate rescuer? The answer: “So far neither nor” said Brigitte Knopf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Together with Erik Gawel from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), she answered questions from journalists.
Read More

Extreme events forcing global warming? Climate extremes and the carbon cycle

08/15/2013 – Extreme events like heat waves, droughts, heavy rain might not only occur more frequently due to climate change. They could also force global warming if terrestrial ecosystems release CO2 as a result of those extremes. An international team of researchers now analyzed the impacts of extremes on forests, bogs, grass landscapes and arable areas througout the world, among them scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Terrestrial ecosystems absorb about 11 billion tons less carbon dioxide every year as the result of the extreme climate events than they could if the events did not occur, the researchers write in the renowned journal Nature. This is equivalent to approximately a third of global CO2 emissions per year.
Read More

Multifold increase in heat extremes by 2040

08/15/2013 - Extremes such as the severe heat wave last year in the US or the one 2010 in Russia are likely to be seen much more often in the near future. A few decades ago, they were practically absent. Today, due to man-made climate change monthly heat extremes in summer are already observed on 5 percent of the land area. This is projected to double by 2020 and quadruple by 2040, according to a study by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). A further increase of heat extremes in the second half of our century could be stopped if global greenhouse-gas emissions would be reduced substantially.
Read More

Identifying climate impact hotspots across sectors

07/02/2013 - One out of ten people on Earth is likely to live in a climate impact hotspot by the end of this century, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. Many more are put at risk in a worst-case scenario of the combined impacts on crop yields, water availability, ecosystems, and health, according to a study now published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It identifies the Amazon region, the Mediterranean and East Africa as regions that might experience severe change in multiple sectors. The article is part of the outcome of the Intersectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP) that will be featured in a special issue of PNAS later this year.
Read More

Policy advice for EU decision makers: Edenhofer chairs new Energy Platform

07/17/2013 - Ottmar Edenhofer, Deputy Director and Chief Economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is co-chairing a new Energy Platform by the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE), an non-profit organisation of national academies from 21 European countries. Bringing together the combined expertise of the academies, the Euro-CASE Energy Platform will provide independent science based policy advice with a focus on a European perspective for policymakers like the Directorate-General for Climate Action which implements the EU Emissions Trading System or the EU Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger.
Read More

Each degree of global warming might ultimately raise global sea levels by more than 2 meters

07/15/2013 - Greenhouse gases emitted today will cause sea level to rise for centuries to come. Each degree of global warming is likely to raise sea level by more than 2 meters in the future, a study now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows. While thermal expansion of the ocean and melting mountain glaciers are the most important factors causing sea-level change today, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will be the dominant contributors within the next two millennia, according to the findings. Half of that rise might come from ice-loss in Antarctica which is currently contributing less than 10 percent to global sea-level rise.
Read More

Intense exchange with African experts

07/01/2013 - Two groups of high-level experts from Africa came to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) for an intense exchange on pressing issues like changing precipitation patterns and water availability under unabated global warming. Most importantly, one delegation sought advice for designing the Pan African Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) at the Abou Bakr Belkaïd University in Tlemcen, Algeria - this institute is supposed to provide expertise for the whole continent. Before visiting PIK, the group met with the German Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation to officially announce financial support for the project.
Read More

Reaping the benefits of renewables in a nonoptimal world

07/02/2013 - Upscaling renewable energy technologies such as wind or solar has a number of direct effects – less greenhouse-gas emissions for instance, and lower local air pollution. Economists rightly recommend a well-tailored set of policy instruments such as emissions cap-and-trade for CO2 or SO2 to tackle these effects. However, in a world in which these instruments cannot be implemented effectively – that is reality in some parts of the world – cobenefits of climate policy like reduced local air pollution might be a compelling narrative. This can be actually observed in the US right now. Still, these are not a substitute for efficient policy instruments, argue Ottmar Edenhofer and his colleagues of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in a comment to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) this week.
Read More

Breakthrough in El Niño-Forecasting

07/02/13 - Irregular warming of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, dubbed El Niño by Peruvian fishermen, can generate devastating impacts. Being the most important phenomenon of contemporary natural climate variability, it may trigger floods in Latin America, droughts in Australia, and harvest failures in India. In order to extend forecasting from 6 months to one year or even more, scientists have now proposed a novel approach based on advanced connectivity analysis applied to the climate system. The scheme builds on high-quality data of air temperatures and clearly outperforms existing methods. The study will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read More

Global Sustainability Summer School 2013: The cities of the future

07/01/2013 - What do the cities of the future look like? What role do they play for global climate change? What influence does the German energy transformation have worldwide? These questions are in the centre of the 2nd Global Sustainability Summer School on “COMPLEX(C)ITY – Urbanization and energy transition in a changing climate“ taking place from 1 to 12 July, sponsored by the Robert Bosch Foundation and jointly organised by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS). Junior scientists, well-known climate researchers and experts for urban development from all over the world – from Brazil to India, from Ghana to Mongolia –will meet in Potsdam for this purpose.
Read More

First World Conference on Climate Impacts: Painting the Big Picture

05/27/2013 - Droughts, floods, crop failures, invading species and diseases – climate change impacts of today and tomorrow come with a raft of buzz words. But the science behind our understanding of the potential consequences of global warming is both much broader and much more fragmented.
Read More

Carbon Dioxide Removal: Assessing potentials - and risks

06/24/2013 - With global greenhouse-gas emissions continuing to rise and a possibility that international cooperation in climate policy will continue to be delayed, a number of large-scale technical approaches have been suggested to counter strong climate change. Direct carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere is a measure that two groups of scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research (PIK) are now looking into. Theoretically, it could make ambitious mitigation economically more feasible, increase the likelihood of achieving the 2-degrees warming threshold agreed by the international community, or lower atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the future to partially compensate for lack of mitigation today. The PIK projects are part of a programme financed by Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft on climate engineering that is starting this month.
Read More

Floods in the light of climate change

06/21/2013 - The nationwide floods have been keeping the country´s attention for some time now. This week, the Minister for the Environment, Peter Altmaier, visited flooded regions near Dessau/Bitterfeld. He was accompanied by Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarbe of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), who briefed him on the relation between climate change and extreme weather events, as well as a number of other high-ranking experts. In the previous weeks, Gerstengarbe and other PIK scientists have given several interviews on the subject, mainly on the question if climate change is one of the causes for the floods.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More

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.
Read More