“Two great challenges define the 21st century - the threat of catastrophic climate change and the maddening gap between the global rich and poor”, PIK director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber said. “Global warming impacts, such as increasingly disastrous weather events, regional water scarcity or local crop failure, hit those hardest who have the least means for coping”. Next to Wolfgang Lucht, chair of PIK research domain Earth System Analysis, Schellnhuber is also one of the authors of an article released before Lima by the Earth Leage – jointly with eminent researchers like Brian Hoskins of Imperial College UK or Leena Srivastava of TERI in India. Schellnhuber is also lead-author of a major PIK report on climate impacts, published by the World Bank days before the summit.
Many media quoted PIK scientists before the UN Climate Conference. Anders Levermann, co-chair of research domain Sustainable Solutions, spoke at a media workshop of the Federal Press Office - among others, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. Brigitte Knopf, head of the group Energy Strategies in Europe and Germany was interviewed by the International New York Times and the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua. Thomas Nocke of the project KlimafolgenOnline talked to the probably most important regional paper in Germany, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Also, Katja Frieler and Peter Hoffmann of research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilites were interviewed. Reports were published in media ranging from Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten to economical daily Handelsblatt.
Weblink to COP20 climate summit: http://newsroom.unfccc.int/
Weblink to Earth League Statement: http://www.the-earth-league.org/press-release-28-november-2014.html
Weblink to IPCC report: http://www.ipcc.ch/
Weblink to PIK-report for the World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/publication/turn-down-the-heat
