Edenhofer and Rockström outline pathway to more global climate finance in Nature
13.03.2025 – In their own interest, “coalitions of the willing” of industrialised countries should now step up climate finance for developing countries. The aim: to make their climate commitments, which must be updated in 2025 according to the Paris Agreement, as ambitious as possible. Proven CO₂ reductions in the Global South should be rewarded with massive public grants – which would be highly profitable for donor countries due to avoided climate damage. This is the message of an article published today in the top journal Nature, co-authored by Ottmar Edenhofer and Johan Rockström, scientific directors of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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PIK Research Days 2025: Interdisciplinary climate research under one roof
13.03.2025 - From the stability of the Atlantic overturning circulation and new findings on climate solutions to the social dynamics of populism and climate policy - the PIK Research Days 2025 on March 11 and 12 offered a comprehensive insight into the latest research findings of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). In addition to intensive discussions and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, the focus was also on diversity, freedom and inclusion: values that characterize PIK's scientific approach.
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Ariadne report shows cost-efficient pathways to climate neutrality 2045 in Germany
06.03.2025 – The new German government is still being formed, but one thing seems clear: the goal of climate neutrality by 2045 remains. Researchers from the Kopernikus project Ariadne, with significant participation from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), have now calculated how much this will cost. According to the study, the necessary investments will be largely offset by reduced spending on fossil fuels. Depending on the scenario, the additional cost of the transformation can be limited through cost-efficient climate protection to an annual average of 16 to 26 billion euros – 0.4 to 0.7 percent of current economic output – between now and 2045. European coordination of energy and climate policy is key to minimising costs.
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Leonie Wenz: Professor of Environmental Economics at the TU Berlin
04.03.2025- Leonie Wenz has been appointed Professor of Environmental Economics at Technische Universität (TU) Berlin with effect from 1 March 2025. The new position is a joint appointment with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), where the scientist is deputy head of the research department ‘Complexity Science’ and head of the Lab ‘Social Transition and Well-being’.
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Seeing Earth through AI: New initiative tackles global sustainability challenges
26/02/2025 - Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address critical sustainability risks and challenges for both people and the planet. To explore this, the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and Google DeepMind have launched Seeing Earth through AI. This initiative will start with the development of an open-access report to guide AI's application in sustainability science.
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EU climate Advisory Board outlines recommendations to scale up carbon removals
21.02.2025 – The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) has today published a report on scaling up carbon dioxide removals. The report outlines key actions for the EU to accelerate the deployment of carbon dioxide removals, emphasising their potential to drive innovation, restore ecosystems and create economic opportunities, while ensuring environmental and social safeguards.
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Major risk assessment links climate change with Germany’s national security
13/02/2025 – A new National Interdisciplinary Climate Risk Assessment outlines the risks to Germany’s national security resulting from climate change through 2040. It provides the first comprehensive overview of the many cascading and compounding climate risks. The Assessment will be officially presented at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025. Developed under Germany’s National Security Strategy 2023, it was co-authored by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in collaboration with various partners.
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Little potential for “climate plantations” within planetary boundaries
12.02.2025 – Planting fast-growing crops, burning them, capturing the released CO₂ and storing it: this is being discussed as a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees in the long term. But if this is done on land beyond existing agriculture, it endangers the stability of the biosphere. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Nature Communications Earth & Environment puts a figure on the potential of such novel “climate plantations”, also known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The study considered not only the carbon balance but also other planetary boundaries.
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A wealth of evidence: PIK compiles 85,000 individual studies about climate policy
11.02.2025 – Research on climate policy is growing exponentially. Of the approximately 85,000 individual studies ever published on policy instruments for mitigating global heating, a good quarter are from 2020 or later. A study led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in the journal npj Climate Action, using machine learning methods, now shows how this vast knowledge is distributed – by instrument, country, sector and policy level – and identifies research gaps. A corresponding web tool, the “living systematic map”, will help to guide science and policy. It will be continuously updated to reflect the current state of research.
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Two PIK researchers involved in new IPCC Special Report on cities
04/02/2025 – Gunnar Luderer and Felix Creutzig from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) will contribute to the new IPCC Special Report as lead authors. In March 2027, the IPCC will publish its fourth Special Report, this time on “Climate Change and Cities”. The team of 97 authors from 56 countries has now been announced.
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Transforming China’s food system: Healthy diets lead the way
21/01/2025 - Transforming the Chinese food system could put the country on a better path toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, a new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Zhejiang University (ZJU) in Hangzhou, China, finds. The study analyses the trade-offs and outcomes of various policy measures aimed at transforming the country’s food system. A shift towards healthy diets is thereby a no-regret option for a more sustainable Chinese food system. In contrast, focusing exclusively on climate mitigation, ecological conservation, or accelerated socio-economic development creates significant trade-offs between social and environmental outcomes.
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"Serious concerns about the future of international climate cooperation": PIK statement on Trump inauguration
20.01.2025 - Today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Statement by Ottmar Edenhofer and Johan Rockström, Directors of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, regarding Donald Trump's inauguration.
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Green hydrogen: Big gaps between ambition and implementation
14.01.2025 - In recent years, more than 60 countries have developed strategies to stimulate the market ramp-up of hydrogen, particularly in the industrial sector. However, in 2023, less than ten percent of the originally announced green hydrogen production was realised, shows a new study published in the journal ‘Nature Energy’. The main reason: hydrogen remains an expensive good for which there is little willingness to pay. Adrian Odenweller and Falko Ueckerdt from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) determine this competitiveness gap for all 1232 globally announced hydrogen projects. They advocate for a robust political strategy that is based on realistic expectations for hydrogen and closes the implementation gap.
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Climate fee on food could effectively cut greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture while ensuring a social balance
10.01.2025 - Greenhouse gas emissions in German agriculture could be significantly reduced in a socially equitable way through a climate fee on food, combined with climate dividends. This is the key finding of a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study suggests that pricing greenhouse gas-intensive foods could help meet climate targets for agriculture while generating over 8.2 billion Euros annually. If these funds were redistributed to households through a lump-sum compensation scheme, it would ease the financial burden on households, especially those with lower incomes and at the same time encourage sustainable consumption.
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Growing Divide: Agricultural Climate Policies Affect Food Prices Differently in Wealthy and Poor Countries
03.01.2025 – Farmers are receiving less of what consumers spend on food, as modern food systems increasingly direct costs toward value-added components like processing, transport, and marketing. A new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK shows that this effect shapes how food prices respond to agricultural climate policies: While value-added components buffer consumer price changes in wealthier countries, low-income countries – where farming costs dominate – face greater challenges in managing food price increases due to climate policies.
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New study identifies causal links behind the increase in hot and dry extremes in Central Europe
23.12.2024 - Hot extreme weather events in Central Europe are driven primarily by anomalous atmospheric patterns and soil water deficiency, a new study led by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK shows. In contrast, dry extremes are mainly caused by atmospheric anomalies and soil moisture memory, and only marginally by temperature changes.
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IPBES Nexus Report: Integrated solutions to address interconnected global crises
17.12.2024 - Current efforts to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change, water scarcity, and challenges in food security and health are often disconnected and fail to account for the complexity of these interconnected crises, a landmark new report finds. The Nexus Assessment, published by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), calls for more integrated solutions. It highlights how ongoing biodiversity decline—primarily driven by human activity and climate change—directly affects food security, water quality and availability, health, resilience to climate impacts, and nearly all other contributions that nature makes to human well-being. It’s the first comprehensive global report to explore the interlinkages of these crises.
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Climate hazards could reduce corporate earnings by up to 7 percent annually by 2035
11.12.2024 - Businesses that fail to adapt to climate risks like extreme heat could lose up to 7 percent of annual earnings by 2035, an impact comparable to nearly half of the economic losses caused by COVID-19. This is shown in a new report by the World Economic Forum, with contribution by PIK director Johan Rockström. The report aims to build a bridge between the latest scientific findings on the Earth system and their consequences for the economy.
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Energy-intensive industry: importing selected primary products and securing value creation and jobs
10.12.2024 - The competitiveness of the chemical and steel industry in Germany could be strengthened in the long term through the partial import of inexpensive green primary products and a focus on high added value in industrial processing. This is shown in a new report by scientists from the Kopernikus project Ariadne, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Ariadne researchers analyze how the German energy-intensive primary industry can become climate-neutral and remain competitive at the same time.
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The time has come: PIK’s strategic expansion will take place at the turn of the year
09.12.2024 – Bundling climate expertise from the natural sciences to policy advice: at the beginning of 2025, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) will implement its long-planned strategic expansion through additional institutional funding. As announced in October 2023, the Berlin-based climate research institute MCC (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change) will be integrated into PIK. In addition, expertise in previously under-researched and future-oriented topics will be specifically strengthened. The Joint Science Conference of the German federal and state governments has now formally approved the necessary increase in long-term basic state funding.
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PIK scientist Annika Stechemesser receives the Potsdam Young Scientist Prize
02.12.2024 – The Potsdam Young Scientist Prize has been awarded this year to Annika Stechemesser for her outstanding research in the field of climate physics. In her interdisciplinary dissertation, awarded summa cum laude, she explored the impacts of climate change on human behaviour and its subsequent effects on the economy, communication, social cohesion, and mobility. Her work provides important insights into adaptation to climate change and the social and economic inequalities exacerbated by global warming.
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Transforming land management within planetary boundaries key to addressing global land use crisis
02.12.2024 - Land degradation undermines biodiversity, accelerates climate impacts, and endangers agriculture, food security, and livelihoods all over the world. These are the findings of a new scientific report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in collaboration with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), released on the occasion of UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh. Using the planetary boundaries framework, the report examines the latest scientific research on global land degradation, shedding light on the risks and opportunities of various land-use decisions.
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Maximilian Kotz receives Leibniz Dissertation award for “The economic costs of climate change”
28.11.2024 – The 2024 Leibniz Dissertation Award has been granted to Maximilian Kotz for his outstanding research on the economic costs of climate change, completed at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He examines the economic impact of human-made climate change, specifically rising temperatures, increased variability, and more frequent extreme weather events like heavy rainfall. He received the award in the Natural and Technical Sciences category at the annual Leibniz Association meeting.
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Scientific Climate Council of the State of Brandenburg: ‘Climate protection is important for Brandenburg's future viability’
25.11.2024 - The scientific Climate Council of the State of Brandenburg (WKB), chaired by Hermann Lotze-Campen from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), has started its first working session in Potsdam. The WKB will make an important contribution to the implementation of the Brandenburg Climate Plan. The climate plan, which was adopted in March 2024, contains 103 measures and sets out a path for the state of Brandenburg to achieve climate neutrality by 2045. The climate plan was developed in a broad-based participation process involving all relevant ministries and administrations, a large number of stakeholders and citizens throughout the state.
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"At best the avoidance of a diplomatic disaster": PIK assessment on COP29 closing
24.11.2024 - In the past two weeks, around 40,000 people from all over the world took part in the UN climate summit COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Key topics were the strengthening of global climate action, particularly with regard to the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, a new collective financing target to support developing countries in overcoming the climate crisis, and trusted and transparent global carbon markets to help countries collaborate to reach their climate goals. Here is what PIK’s scientific directors, Ottmar Edenhofer and Johan Rockström, say about the outcome of the conference.
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Global Recognition: PIK researchers again part of the top 1% of the world’s most cited scientists
20.11.2024 - For the seventh year in a row, scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) are represented in the top 1 percent of the “Highly Cited Researchers”. The prestigious ranking, released by Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science platform, is determined by the frequency with which scientists' papers are cited by other researchers — a measure of global scientific impact. The 2024 edition features ten PIK researchers from different research departments, including PIK Director Johan Rockström.
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Integrating nature and climate risk scenarios for the financial sector
20.11.2024 - Combining climate and nature risks in a unified model offers the financial sector a more accurate view of their combined economic and environmental impacts. This is the result of a new report published by NatureFinance, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the University of Minnesota. The researchers developed a modelling framework that illustrates the interconnections between climate change and nature degradation. It emphasises the importance of addressing both in an integrated manner.
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COP29: PIK and KfW launch financing concept for carbon removals at world climate summit
11.11.2024 - Since the reduction of CO2 emissions is too slow to limit global heating to 1.5°C, a great deal of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere. Depending on the scenario, this will cost up to 2 percent of annual global economic output in 2050. This effort is economically imperative because the climate damage per tonne of CO2 is many times higher. However, this would overburden state budgets, so a financial architecture is needed to mobilise private capital. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and KfW, one of the world’s leading promotional banks, are now making a joint proposal at the World Climate Summit.
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PIK expertise at COP29 in Azerbaijan
11.11.2024 - The 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) takes place from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The conference brings together delegates from nearly 200 countries, including leading scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), to discuss the latest scientific findings and policy measures to mitigate the climate crisis.
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Newly published climate scenarios for the financial system: Timely, coordinated transition needed
08.11.2024 – Latest climate macro-financial scenarios from the Network for Greening the Financial System show that timely and coordinated adaptation of the economy to climate change is the most cost-effective strategy for mitigating the negative impacts of unrestrained climate change on Gross Domestic Product. The scenarios have been updated based on new climate and economic data, political agreements, and climate models. Many researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK contributed data from the latest climate models, including on land use, climate damage, and transformation risks.
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