RD2 News
Excellency rewarded
June 2020 - The research of two young scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has recently been awarded for its excellence: Xiaoxi Wang wins China Council Scholarship, Andrew McConnell receives prize from Oxford's Martin School.
From artificial meat to fine-tuning photosynthesis: Food System Innovation – and how to get there
19/05/2020 - Food production has always shaped the lives of humans and the surface of the Earth. Be it plough or refrigerator, time and again innovations have transformed the ways we grow, process, and consume food over the last millennia. Today, with almost 40 per cent of all land on Earth used for food production, the food system massively impacts climate and environment – from nitrogen flows to water use, from biodiversity to greenhouse gas emissions. In a new study published in the journal NatureFOOD, an international team of researchers has now assessed and categorised key innovations with a potential to transform the food system, from artificial meat or seafood to biofortified crops or improved climate forecasts – and established what is most needed to make them succeed.
Prof. Sabine Gabrysch and Dr. Benjamin Bodirsky elected in Steering Committee of the German Alliance for Global Health Research
20/04/2020 - Head of RD2 Professor Sabine Gabrysch and RD2 scientist Dr. Benjamin Bodirsky have both been elected into the Steering Committee of the newly founded 'German Alliance for Global Health Research'
Two scholarships for RD2 PhD's
28/04/2020 - Two RD2 scientists, Lisa Murken and Julian Röckert, of the Working Group 'Adaptation in Agricultural Systems' have secured a scholarship for their PhD Thesis.
Congratulations Dr. Femke Lutz!
18/03/2020 - Femke Lutz successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled: "Tilling the earth: modelling global N2O emissions caused by tillage" at Wageningen University.
Regional nuclear war a risk for global food security
16/03/2020 - Even a limited nuclear war could have dangerous effects far beyond the region that is fatally hit. It would result in global cooling that substantially reduces agricultural production in the world’s main breadbasket regions, from the US, to Europe, Russia, and China. The particular effect on food security worldwide including trade responses has now for the first time been revealed by an international team of scientists in a study based on advanced computer simulations. The sudden temperature reduction would lead to a food system shock unprecedented in documented history. It would not undo long-term climate change from fossil fuels use, though – after about a decade of cooling, global warming would surge again.
Potsdam Climate Council: Fritz Reußwig appointed as expert
25/02/2020 - PIK sociologist Fritz Reußwig has been appointed to the new Potsdam Climate Council. In the eight-member expert committee he will be in charge of the domain "private households and consumption" for the current term. As honorary body, the Potsdam Climate Council has the task of accompanying the implementation the city's climate mitigation master plan, identifying possible conflicts of objectives in the implementation and providing impulses in the social discourse towards more sustainability and climate protection.
Managing forests in the 21st century: Experts gather at PIK
06/03/2020 - Forests all over Europe feel the pressure from ongoing climate change, yet at the same time provide a wide range of resources to mitigate and to adapt to global warming. Smartly targeted management of forest is thus key, finds an international gathering of leading experts hosted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research this week. More than 100 scientists from institutions ranging from German National Park Berchtesgarden to US Oregon State University and Russian Higher School of Economics participated in three days of intense discussions and a field trip, more than 30 additional participants joined via videolink.
PIKeeBB - Klimabildung am PIK
25/02/2020 - Den Klimawandel verstehen: Neue Webseite stellt Unterrichtseinheiten und Hintergrundmaterialien zu Klimawandelthemen zur Verfügung im Rahmen des vom BMU-gefördertes PIKeeBB-Projektes.
Congratulations Dr. Minoli!
14/02/2020 - Sara Minoli successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Managing phenology for agronomic adaptation of global cropping systems to climate change" at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Focus on food to address climate change
18/02/2020 - Bringing together agricultural production, supply chains, and consumption: In a comment published in the new journal Nature Food researchers discuss a new global food system approach to climate change research. When these activities are considered together, they represent 21 to 37 percent of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, the authors note. This new approach also enables a fuller assessment of the vulnerability of the global food system to increasing droughts, intensifying heatwaves, heavier downpours, and exacerbated coastal flooding. Food system responses thus play a major role in both adapting to and mitigating climate change, the authors assert.
Buildings can become a global CO2 sink if made out of wood instead of cement and steel
A material revolution replacing cement and steel in urban construction by wood can have double benefits for climate stabilization, a new study shows. First, it can avoid greenhouse gas emissions from cement and steel production. Second, it can turn buildings into a carbon sink as they store the CO2 taken up from the air by trees that are harvested and used as engineered timber. However while the required amount of timber harvest is available in theory, such an upscaling would clearly need most careful, sustainable forest management and governance, the international team of authors stresses.
Climate change, food and agriculture: PIK expertise at International Green Week in Berlin
20/01/2020 - Hundreds of thousands of people are currently exploring the International Green Week in Berlin, a leading global trade fair for agriculture and food with featuring more than 1800 exhibitors from 72 countries. According to the organizers, the International Green Week 2020 is focusing on climate change like never before, with numerous exhibitions and events. This year's trend topics include sustainability, resource conservation and environmentally friendly production processes. Experts from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) will also be present at events at the Green Week from 17-26 January.
RD2 involvement and successes in Geo.X
09/01/2020 - The end of 2019 marked a very successful involvement of RD2 in the Geo.X network. Dr. Roopam Shukla was accepted to the Geo.X Young Academy and PhD student Gina Maskell started at PIK in November 2019 under Geo.X funding. Congratulations to both colleagues for this accomplishment!
Congratulations Dr. Weng!
10/12/2019 - Wei Weng successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Aerial river management for future water in the context of land use change in Amazonia" at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Launch of Ghana study at COP25 in Madrid
11/12/2019 - Yesterday PIK researchers from the working group Adaptation in Agricultural Systems launched a newly published climate risk analysis for Ghana’s agricultural sector at the COP25 in Madrid. During a UNFCCC side-event organised by PIK together with the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD), Dr. Christoph Gornott presented key insights from the study.
COP25: PIK experts in Madrid
02.12.2019 - "Time for Action": About 25,000 delegates from all over the world are expected to attend the UN Climate Conference COP25 from December 2-13 in Madrid, Spain. "We stand at a critical juncture in our collective efforts to limit dangerous global heating", UN General Secretary António Guterres said at the Opening Ceremony of COP25 in the Spanish Capital. "Millions throughout the world – especially young people – are calling on leaders from all sectors to do more, much more, to address the climate emergency we face. They know we need to get on the right path today, not tomorrow. That means important decisions must be made now," he stressed in his remarks.
Kick-Off 2050CliMobCity and press release
06/12/2019 - On 30 September and 1 October, the Interreg project 2050 CliMobCity took off to a successful start with a kick-off meeting - including instructive seminars and discussions about future proof mobility - organised by the project lead partner Delft University of Technology
PIK side-event at the Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action 2019
12-14/11/2019 - Scientists of the RD2 Working Group 'Adaptation in Agricultural Systems' organised a side session on "Early warnings of food insecurity to allow more time for action: what is already possible?"
Lancet Countdown: Forschungsbericht zu Klimawandel und Gesundheit
14.11.2019 - Bis zum Ende dieses Jahrhunderts sind jährlich bis zu fünf zusätzliche Hitzewellen in Norddeutschland und bis zu 30 in Süddeutschland zu erwarten, wenn wir mit dem Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen so weitermachen wie bisher. Damit einhergehender Hitzestress und hohe bodennahe Ozonkonzentrationen können schwerwiegende Folgen für die menschliche Gesundheit haben. Dazu zählen unter anderem Hitzschlag, Herzinfarkt und akutes Nierenversagen aufgrund von Flüssigkeitsmangel. Am stärksten gefährdet sind ältere Menschen, Säuglinge, Patienten mit chronischen Erkrankungen sowie Personen, die schwere körperliche Arbeit im Freien verrichten, etwa Bauarbeiter.
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