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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.

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.

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.

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.

Schellnhuber reappointed for government advisory council

05/08/2013 - The Federal Governement of Germany today decided upon the appointments for the German Advisory Council on Global Change (Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Globale Umweltveränderungen, WBGU). Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and long-standing chair of the council, has been confirmed as a member. Being an independent scientific counseling body, WBGU is charged to develop recommendations for the governement. Its members will be in office until 2016.

Edenhofer to advise „Energiewende Research Forum”

05/06/2013 - Science is an important partner in implementing the German energy transition. Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist and research domain co-chair of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), has been asked to join the working group on economics of the “Energiewende Research Forum”, whose job is to provide scientific advice for political measures to realize the energy transition. The interdisciplinary initiative was sparked by the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities.

Petersberg Climate Dialogue: if you want an evidence-based strategy - don´t ignore the evidence

Research on Antarctica awarded with prize for upcoming scientists

05/03/2013 - For her research on climate change and the Antarctic ice shield, Ricarda Winkelmann was awarded with a young scientists prize. The Natural Sciences Department at the University of Potsdam presents this prize for outstanding publications. Winkelmann, aged 27, leads the group on projections of Antarctica´s contribution to future global sea level rise at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. The jury highlighted her "most impressive contribution to our understanding of the physics of Antarctica's ice shield dynamics."

EU Emissions Trading Scheme: Long-term mitigation goals are important, not short-term interventions

Climate-KIC: Strategy retreat and green garage

04/25/2013 – More than 60 representatives of science and industry meet at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week for a two-day strategy meeting of Climate-KIC. The European network of Climate Knowledge and Innovation Communities brings together research, businesses and technology to kick off innovation in climate mitigation and adaptation with creative partnerships. Partners of Climate-KIC in addition to PIK are for instance the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich, the Imperial College in London and companies like Bayer Technology Services or Electricité de France.