News — Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Constraining world trade is unlikely to help the climate

09/23/2012 - From rubber dinghies to television sets: the emissions of greenhouse gases in countries like China are to a significant extent caused by the production of goods that are exported to Germany or the United States. But this doesn´t necessarily mean that Western countries have relocated their emission-intensive industries and hence escape regulation for climate protection. This is shown in a study appearing in Nature Climate Change this week. Instead, researchers were able to pin down a number of factors explaining the pronounced imbalances between emission importers and exporters, the US current account deficit being one of them. Their conclusion: interventions in world trade, like CO2 tariffs, would probably have only a small impact on global emissions.

„Record sea-ice melt a warning sign“: top German Arctic researchers

09/19/2012 - This summer’s record low of Arctic sea-ice is a warning sign, some of Germany’s leading ice researchers stated in a joint press conference in Hamburg today. Never before since the beginning of satellite observations – and very probably even since 1500 years or more – the sea-ice cover shrunk to such small area. “The record melt measured some weeks ago has thus been exceeded significantly again, leaving the 2012 record 23 percent below the previous record just five years before,” said Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Climate Media Factory wins environment prize

09/11/2012 - The Climate Media Factory was awarded with the environment prize “Green Tech Media Award” in the category Communication. The prize was given to the collaboration project between the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the University of Film and Television “Konrad Wolff” (HFF) for their “unique constellation of climate researchers and media professionals”. The awards ceremony at Berlin´s Tempodrom was celebrated as an environment gala with more than 1.000 exclusively invited guests from economy, science, politics, culture and media, among them German actors like Christiane Paul, Nora Tschirner or Hannes Jaenicke.

Strategies for financing the global energy transformation

09/06/2012 - Who is paying for the transformation of our energy systems? And how can this transformation be globalized? The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WGBU) today submitted a policy paper entitled “Financing the Global Energy-System Transformation” to the Federal Minister of the Environment, Peter Altmaier. According to the paper, it needs decisive politics and a reduction of risks to enable a successful transformation of the energy systems and more energy efficiency.

Building trust: summer school in China

Water management under conditions of climate change is the focus of a second Chinese-German summer school. Together with the National Climate Centre in Beijing, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has invited altogether 40 young scientists from both countries to debate ideas and problems. “China is an important partner for climate research. We see a lot of potential for joint projects,” says Frank Wechsung of PIK. “Mutual trust is essential here, and this is something that summer schools can help built up within the next generation of researchers.”

Schellnhuber campaigns for Europe

08/23/2012 - Prominent German public figures take a stand for the European idea to counter growing skepticism caused by the Euro-crisis. Siding former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the national soccer team's captain Philipp Lahm, and Daimler’s chairman Dieter Zetsche, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), is taking part in a large-scale campaign. “Europe is reducing CO2 emissions more decisively than any other continent in the world" – that is his statement to promote European unity.

Federal Minister for the Environment discusses energy transformation with scientists

08/14/2012 - Right on the first day after his vacation, Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister for the Environment, visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to learn about the activities of the institute, current research and solution pathways. “Climate change is the problem, the energy transformation is the solution,” Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, PIK director, said during his presentation, and a lively exchange about how to achieve a restructuring of the energy system emerged.

Climate-KIC Academy of Innovation starts

08/10/2012 - „Climate politics alone won´t be enough to mitigate global warming - we need innovations,“ said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), at the Climate-KIC founders academy kick-off in Berlin and Potsdam this week. The abbreviation stands for “Knowledge and Innovation Community“, a European network for climate innovations. PIK is a co-founder and Schellnhuber is the chair of the board of directors. About 50 potential young entrepreneurs from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland visited PIK. “The risks of climate change are great - but so are the chances for innovative start-ups,” Schellnhuber said.

Between intense rain events und parched earth: Climate change impacts in Germany

08/06/2012 - Climate change has implications not only in far-away regions of the world but in Germany, too. And these implications are relevant not tomorrow but already today. By the middle of this century these consequences will be amplified. What climate change impacts - which can be very different from region to region - could actually look like, is the subject of the conference “Climate Impacts in Germany”, organized by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the German federal state Brandenburg and the Humboldt University Berlin, taking place on September 24th 2012 in Berlin. For the first time, climate change impacts on a time horizon up to the year 2100 are addressed across all sectors for the different regions in Germany.

"Qatar could become a powerful change agent"

07/18/2012 - A high-level delegation from Qatar visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to discuss future cooperation initiatives, the next climate conference in Doha (COP18) and to learn about PIK´s latest findings in the fields of climate research and sustainable solutions. One specific point of interest was the future of water management for agricultural needs.