EU border tax on CO2 offers huge opportunity to tackle climate change
04/24/2023 - A price on CO2 emissions from products entering the EU offers unprecedented opportunities in the fight against global warming. But success hinges on how low- and middle-income countries will be engaged. That is the result of a research published today in Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
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Johan Rockström on TIME's 100 Most Influential People List
04/13/2023 - TIME named Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, to the 2023 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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Greenland’s Ice Sheet might be close to first tipping point
04/05/2023 - The Greenland Ice Sheet is likely to be halfway towards a tipping point whose crossing would imply extensive further melting, a new study finds. While humanity has emitted ca. 500 gigatons of carbon so far, with about 1000 gigatons of carbon much of the massive ice sheet will melt irreversibly, a team of scientists shows.
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PIK congratulates fellow Yuri Maistrenko on Humboldt Research Award
03/21/2023 - Yuri Maistrenko from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences is a guest scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and has now been awarded the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at a festive ceremony in Bamberg.
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Water has to become a common good – two new reports show
03/22/2023 - Water overuse and a failure to recognize that countries are interdependent when it comes to the global water cycle has put the world on a path to a potential 40% freshwater supply shortfall by the end of the decade. Water therefore has to be treated as a global common good. This is stated in a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW) and also in a Nature Commentary – both led by PIK director Johan Rockström and released in the context of the UN Water Conference in New York, the first such meeting in 50 years.
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E-fuels likely to remain scarce for a long time: PIK analysis paper
03/21/2023 - To advance the current debate on e-fuels, researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have analyzed data on the global status of e-fuel projects and compiled it in an analysis paper.
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PIK statement on today's IPCC synthesis report
03/20/2023 - Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published its synthesis report on the Sixth Assessment Report.
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Advances, Applications, Perspectives: NDA23 Conference
03/20/2023 - Around 300 scientists from various fields of complex systems science gathered for three days at the Nonlinear Data Analysis and Modeling Conference (NDA) to exchange ideas and knowledge on the latest developments and applications in complex systems science. The conference was organized on the special occasion of the 70th birthday of Jürgen Kurths, former head and currently senior advisor of the Complexity Science research department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK.
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Less predictable rainfall important for Maya decline
03/17/2023 - Reduced predictability of seasonal rainfall might have played an important role in the disintegration of Classic Maya societies about 1100 years ago. That is the result of a new study of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Potsdam University. The research team studied variations in stable isotope signatures from a stalagmite that was collected in a cave near Uxbenka/Belize, an important archaeological site in the former heartland of the Maya. The carbon and oxygen isotope ratios are sensitive recorders of local and regional rainfall dynamics.
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Planetary boundaries to help policy assessment in climate crisis
03/17/2023 - The concept of planetary boundaries should be included in the cost-benefit analysis of policy pathways, shows a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change MCC.
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Justice key to live within Earth system boundaries
03/02/2023 - To ensure a safe and just future for people, nature and the planet Earth System Boundaries must include justice. That is the result of a new study investigated by international team of scientists from the Earth Commission, amongst them PIK Director Johan Rockström.
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Sustainability beyond Sustainable Development Goals – ERC grant for Prajal Pradhan
02/24/2023 - For his proposal “Transformation towards long-term sustainability beyond Sustainable Development Goals” Prajal Pradhan, senior scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) receives the highly prestigious HORIZON Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) amounting to 1,5 million Euro.
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From forest resilience to power grids to loss and damage: PIK Research Days
02/22/2023 - Hot topics were presented in talks and discussed among scientists at the annual ‘Research Days’ of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Virtually all members of the institute gathered for the 2-day exchange, the first one which happened face-to-face after the online-only times of COVID pandemic. Once a year, the entire institute comes together to update one another on its findings, new methods and challenges – and to discuss new frontiers to be investigated.
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Tackling climate threats together: Munich Security Conference and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research cooperate
02/17/2023 - The Munich Security Conference (MSC) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) are joining forces to tackle threats arising from global heating. Greenhouse gas emissions from coal and oil reached record levels last year, increasing extreme weather events and yield failure risks that can fuel smoldering conflicts in poor countries and contribute to destabilizing societies. To help limit these risks, the leaders of MSC and PIK as champions in their respective fields of expertise now signed a cooperation agreement.
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Earlier, higher, smaller: Climate change alters glacial lake outburst floods
02/16/2023 - Due to global warming, flood-like water outbursts from ice-dammed glacial lakes worldwide happen earlier in the year and originate from higher areas. This is shown on the basis of observation data since 1900 by a new study with the participation of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which is published in the scientific journal Nature. At the same time, however, these so-called outbursts are also becoming smaller.
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Coal exit can happen only with stronger policies – and with China
02/06/2023 - Current climate policies including efforts like the Powering Past Coal Alliance will not add up to a global coal exit, a new study shows. Countries phasing coal out of the electricity sector need to broaden their policy strategy, or else they risk pushing the excess coal supply into other industries at home, like steel production. The scientists find that China has an opportunity to dominate the renewable energy technology market if it begins phasing down coal immediately. Otherwise, it could dangerously delay the renewable energy breakthrough worldwide.
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FABLE: How to get food and land use systems on track
02/03/2023 - Sustainable futures for food and land use systems are only possible with coordinated, major efforts around the world in the next decade. This is what a team of researchers, including PIK, from 20 countries found by using FABLE (Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy) modeling tools. The results are now published in a Special Issue.
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El Niño phenomenon: 2024 could be warmest year ever
02/03/2023 – With a likelihood of almost 90% the weather phenomenon "El Niño" will occur again in the Pacific region as early as this autumn. This may be accompanied by numerous extreme weather events, such as heavy rain in Peru and drought in Australia and Indonesia. As El Niño also increases global temperatures in the short term, there is a possibility that 2024 could be the warmest year since weather records began. This is what scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Justus Liebig University Giessen and two Beijing universities report in a recent analysis.
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Remembering Professor Will Steffen
01/31/2023 - The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK is grieving Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University ANU in Canberra, Australia. The climate scientist passed away on 29 January at the age of 75.
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Berlin could produce much of its vegetables locally
01/27/2023 - Berlin could produce a surprisingly large proportion of its vegetable requirements itself if unused areas were used for this purpose, such as flat roofs, allotments, cemetery areas that are no longer in use, or even supermarket parking lots. Researchers have now calculated this. However, the use of this land is tied to many preconditions.
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Amazon heat drives Tibet temperatures: climate tipping elements connected half around the globe
01/26/2023 - While the Amazon rainforest and the Tibetan Plateau sit on different sides of the globe, scientists now discovered that changes in the South American ecosystem can trigger changes in the vicinity of the Himalayas. Both are tipping elements, hence large-scale elements of the planetary machinery that are sensitive to global warming and may shift abruptly and often irreversibly from one state to another at specific thresholds. A new study applies the theory of complex networks to these elements and finds surprising – and worrying – long-distance linkages.
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Stuck – climate change makes people too poor to migrate
01/23/2023 - Climate change increases migration worldwide. Over the past 30 years, however, this effect has been considerably reduced as climate change weakens economic growth in the countries of the Global South. This is the research result of a team from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research comparing the observed migration flows to a scenario without the effects of climate change.
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Excellent research: Doctoral prize for Nico Wunderling
01/23/2023 - PIK researcher Nico Wunderling has been awarded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation for his groundbreaking dissertation on tipping elements.
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Science takes centre stage in Davos
01/20/2023 - PIK Director Johan Rockström participated in the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Meeting 2023 in Davos this week. In a first, science took centre stage in a Davos plenary session with Rockström outlining how climate change impacts economies around the world.
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Climate, Development, Economics - Kati Krähnert is a Professor at RWI and Bochum University
01/20/2023 - From Potsdam's Telegrafenberg to the Ruhr - since January 1, 2023, Kati Krähnert is Professor of Climate Change and Development at the Faculty of Economics at Ruhr University Bochum. There she researches how the lives of people in the Global South are affected by climate change and how policies need to be designed if they are to improve household climate resilience. She was appointed jointly by the Ruhr University and RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research.
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New study in 'Science' puts a number on what Exxon knew decades ago about climate change
01/13/2023 - Climate projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003 were accurate and skillful in predicting subsequent global warming and contradicted the company’s public claims, shows a new study published in the highly renowned research journal 'Science'.
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Federal Research Minister visits PIK
01/09/2023 - The Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger has visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). She spoke for almost two hours with climate economist and PIK Director Ottmar Edenhofer, as well as with Administrative Director Bettina Hörstrup and Gunnar Luderer from the Copernicus research project ARIADNE on energy transition policy. Topics included the federal government's hydrogen strategy and research into economic models for extracting CO2 from the air and storing it underground, as well as research into energy systems.
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3 out of 10 climate science papers most referred to in news and social media feature PIK authors
01/06/2023 - In a ranking of climate science papers most referred to in news and social media, no less than 3 out of the top 10 papers feature authors from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The ranking is published by the renowned 'Carbon Brief' newsletter and is based on the papers' so-called Altmetric score. While this metric is certainly not perfect, it is a good indicator to help assess public perception of climate science publications.
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Smart nitrogen management can strongly reduce pollution
01/06/2023 - To increase food and feed supply, agriculture has used more and more industrial nitrogen fertilizers and manure. However, over half of these nitrogen inputs to croplands are currently lost to the environment, contributing to air pollution and its related diseases, water eutrophication, soil acidification, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Nitrogen pollution has become a global challenge and next crisis. An international team of researchers explored cost-effective nitrogen mitigation strategies for global croplands in a new study, now published in Nature.
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Climate risk insurance can effectively mitigate economic losses
01/04/2023 - Global warming is expected to lead to an accumulation of particularly intense hurricanes in the United States. This may substantially increase the economic losses caused by these storms. Better insurance could effectively mitigate the climate change-induced increase in economic losses. This is shown in a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research examining the effectiveness of climate risk insurance in the US.
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