Professor Dr. Johan Rockström

Director
Rockström

Johan Rockström is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam.

Johan Rockström is an internationally recognized scientist on global sustainability and Earth resilience. He led the development of the Planetary Boundaries framework for human development in the current era of rapid global change. He is deeply involved in research on the future trajectory of the Anthropocene and tipping points in the Earth system. With more than 25 years experience in applied water research in tropical regions, he is also a leading scientist on global water resources. Professor Rockström is a driving force behind myriad international scientific initiatives, including the Earth Commission and the Planetary Boundaries Science Initiative, as well as actively consulting on global sustainability issues for national and multilateral government organisations and business networks.

Professor Rockström values diverse perspectives and prioritises speaking at events that feature a balanced representation of genders and geographic regions, while also considering the environmental impact of his travel and the event itself.

To invite Professor Johan Rockström as a speaker for your event, please complete this invitation form.

Curriculum Vitae

PDF document Full Version — PDF document, 183 KB
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Contact

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
P.O. Box 60 12 03
14412 Potsdam

Twitter

@jrockstrom

ORCID

0000-0001-8988-2983

Team:

Sabine Friedel (Head of office)
Phone: +49 331 288 2664

Dr. Antonia Schuster (Strategic advisor)

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Johan Rockström is one of the world's leading scientists on global sustainability, climate change, resilience and global water resources. With over than 150 research publications, his work spans fields ranging from applied land and water management to global environmental policy.  Since 2018 he has served as Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam. Prior to his current roles, Rockström co-founded and directed the Stockholm Resilience Centre from 2004 until 2018.

Professor Rockström's research focuses on the critical intersections between human society and natural ecosystems, seeking solutions to ensure sustainable development while preserving the stability of Earth's systems. A key aspect of his work is the concept of planetary boundaries, which he co-developed with a team of scientists in 2009. This framework identifies nine Earth system processes, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification, that are essential for maintaining a livable and resilient planet. The planetary boundaries framework has become a cornerstone of global sustainability discussions, offering a science-based approach for policymakers and businesses to operate within safe environmental limits.

Professor Rockström co-chairs several international initiatives that seek to advance and synthesize the cutting-edge Earth system science into actionable recommendations for policymakers.  These initiatives include the Earth Commission, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and the Planetary Boundary Science Initiative. He is also a key figure in global sustainability movements, such as the Stockholm Food Forum EAT, which focuses on transforming the global food system for sustainability.

By synthesizing climate modeling, Earth system science, and socio-economic analyses, Rockström’s work informs decision-making at the highest levels. His contributions to understanding global sustainability challenges have made him a trusted advisor to numerous international institutions, including the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the European Union. His policy advocacy has played a vital role in shaping international agreements, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. He has also worked as a consultant to national governments and corporations, offering insights into sustainable transitions and climate risk mitigation.

In recognition of his contributions to environmental science and policy, Rockström has received numerous awards, including the *German Environmental Prize*, the *Stockholm Water Prize*, the *Prince Albert II of Monaco Climate Change Award* and most recently the *Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement* and the *Virchow Prize towards Health for all* for his contributions to environmental science and policy.

Rockström is also a prominent figure in public discourse, regularly appearing in media, conferences, and international forums to communicate science’s urgent call for systemic change to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. His TED talks have garnered over seven millions views, and his popular science books, including Big World, Small Planet, Breaking Boundaries, and The Human Quest, have brought complex environmental issues to the public’s attention, encouraging a shift toward more sustainable management of planetary resources.

Johan Rockström is deeply involved in numerous research activities covering a broad range of topics related to the Earth System and global sustainability in the Anthropocene. The following six selected examples highlight the diversity of his portfolio, while at the same time sharpening the view on his overarching research question: “What is the safe operating space for Humanity's future on Earth, and what are the sustainable transformations that can take us there?”

1. Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene (ERA)

Johan Rockström leads the ERA project, a European Research Council advanced grant, carried out as a joint project between the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC).


Without global-scale social transformations, there is a real risk of crossing tipping points in the Earth System, triggering abrupt and irreversible changes. Although we are aware of the importance of nonlinear social and biophysical dynamics, we remain trapped in linear thinking. The goal of the ERA project is to explore the biophysical and social determinants of the Earth’s long-term stability, and in the process build up a novel community-modelling platform to analyse nonlinearity and abrupt shifts, that can inform global sustainability policy processes.

2. Advancing the Planetary Boundaries framework

Johan Rockström leads the international research network advancing the planetary boundaries framework, together with the core research hubs at SRC (led by Sarah Cornell) and PIK (led by Jonathan Donges). This research ranges from Earth system modelling of interactions among planetary boundaries, to transformation scenarios for world development within planetary boundaries (connected to TWI2050, see below). It also includes projects aimed at operationalising the planetary boundaries framework (e.g., in New Zealand).

Picture: Stockholm Resilience Centr

3. Global Commons Alliance

PIK is a founding member of the Global Commons Alliance. The global commons are our shared climate, freshwater, forests and wetlands, ocean and the rich diversity of life. All are vital to our survival. They regulate the stability and resilience of Earth and are the foundation of the global economy and modern society. They are also undergoing profound changes. The stability of Earth’s life support system is at risk. The purpose of the Global Commons Alliance is to empower citizens, cities, companies and countries to become stewards of our global commons.

The Global Commons Alliance is made up of 4 key components:

With Johan Rockström as Co-Chair and Ricarda Winkelmann as a member, PIK is playing a central role in the Earth Commission. There, scientists are synthesizing the latest research to define conditions for a healthy planet, informing the setting of science-based targets, to help maintain Earth’s life support systems: climate, land, biodiversity, freshwater and oceans. Future Earth will host the Earth Commission’s scientific secretariat in collaboration with PIK, and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The Commission will inform the setting of science-based targets for companies and cities.

For the first time, the Science Based Targets Network will define science-based targets for nature for companies and cities. This work builds on the success of the Science Based Targets Intiative for climate to also incorporate land, biodiversity, freshwater and the ocean, in close collaboration with the Earth Commission, incorporating the latest scientific advances.

  • Earth HQ: A creative agency driving major media partnerships and creating products and tools to support a transformation of worldviews.
  • Systems Change Lab: The Systems Change Lab will monitor the progress of transformations around the world, distill our rapidly evolving understanding of what constitutes and promotes systemic change, identify critical gaps, and mobilize support for coalitions as they push towards tipping points.

4. The World in 2050 (TWI2050)

The TWI2050 initiative, launched by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), involves a over 70 partners and contributors from a wide range of disciplines, including the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

The overall objective of TWI2050 is to explore sustainable development pathways (SDPs), using sustainable transformation scenarios, of how to achieve the SDGs whilst remaining within Planetary Boundaries by 2030, and against a backdrop of continuing world development by 2050 and beyond. This should ultimately provide much needed information and guidance for policy makers responsible for the implementation of the SDGs.

5. EAT– the Science-Based Global Platform for Food System Transformation

   

The EAT Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Oslo, Norway and was founded in 2013 by the Stordalen Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and Stockholm Resilience Centre. EAT promotes integrated research for healthy and sustainable diets and food systems that contribute to attaining the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement. Johan Rockström is a member of the Board of Trustees and chairs the EAT Advisory Board, which provides strategic advice on the organization’s research priorities, activities and long-term strategy.

Together with Walter Willett, Johan co-chaired the EAT-Lancet Commission, which brought together more than 30 world-leading scientists from across the globe to reach a scientific consensus on what defines a healthy and sustainable diet. In January 2019, the commission launched the EAT-Lancet Report, which describes how a planetary health diet could feed 10 billion people healthily within our planet’s boundaries.

6. Green Water to Attain SDG Goals in Africa: Integrated Analysis for Food and Water Resilience

This project – funded by FORMAS, the Swedish research council for sustainable development – started in early 2019. Johan Rockström is the principal investigator collaborating with Dr. Ingo Fetzer from SRC, Prof. Malin Falkenmark from SIWI and researchers from the US Geological Survey as well as from PIK.

Sub-Saharan Africa, where malnourishment, poverty and population growth are the highest in the world, is subject to extreme water variability and scarcity. This project aims to explore how much green water (rainwater stored in the root zone of soil) is required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030 (extended to 2050), and how much is available under different climate scenarios. The project makes use of a green-blue water framework model, in combination with an integrated biosphere model. It also explores management potentials and strategies to secure green and blue water for food (building water resilience), while maintaining the capacity of landscapes to both provide ecosystem services and generate moisture feedback.

Top 10 peer-reviewed publications

 (for a complete list, please refer to the pdf linked below)

Rockström, Johan, Louis Kotzé, Svetlana Milutinović, Frank Biermann, Victor Brovkin, Jonathan Donges, Jonas Ebbesson, et al. 2024. ‘The Planetary Commons: A New Paradigm for Safeguarding Earth-Regulating Systems in the Anthropocene’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (5): e2301531121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301531121.

Richardson, Katherine, Will Steffen, Wolfgang Lucht, Jørgen Bendtsen, Sarah E. Cornell, Jonathan F. Donges, Markus Drüke, et al. 2023. ‘Earth beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries’. Science Advances 9 (37): eadh2458. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.

Rockström, Johan, Joyeeta Gupta, Dahe Qin, Steven J. Lade, Jesse F. Abrams, Lauren S. Andersen, David I. Armstrong McKay, et al. 2023. ‘Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries’. Nature 619 (7968): 102–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8.

Sureth, Michael, Matthias Kalkuhl, Ottmar Edenhofer, and Johan Rockström. 2023. ‘A Welfare Economic Approach to Planetary Boundaries’: Jahrbücher Für Nationalökonomie Und Statistik, March. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2022-0022.

Armstrong McKay, David I., Arie Staal, Jesse F. Abrams, Ricarda Winkelmann, Boris Sakschewski, Sina Loriani, Ingo Fetzer, Sarah E. Cornell, Johan Rockström, and Timothy M. Lenton. 2022. ‘Exceeding 1.5°C Global Warming Could Trigger Multiple Climate Tipping Points’. Science 377 (6611). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7950.

Willett, Walter, Johan Rockström, Brent Loken, Marco Springmann, Tim Lang, Sonja Vermeulen, Tara Garnett, et al. 2019. ‘Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT–Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’. The Lancet 393 (10170): 447–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.

Steffen, Will, Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, Timothy M. Lenton, Carl Folke, Diana Liverman, Colin P. Summerhayes, et al. 2018. ‘Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (33): 8252–59. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810141115.

Rockström, Johan, Owen Gaffney, Joeri Rogelj, Malte Meinshausen, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. 2017. ‘A Roadmap for Rapid Decarbonization’. Science 355 (6331): 1269–71. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah3443.

Steffen, Will, Katherine Richardson, Johan Rockström, Sarah E. Cornell, Ingo Fetzer, Elena M. Bennett, Reinette Biggs, et al. 2015. ‘Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet’. Science 347 (6223): 1259855. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855.

Rockström, Johan, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin, Eric F. Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, et al. 2009. ‘A Safe Operating Space for Humanity’. Nature 461 (7263): 472–75. https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a.

PDF document Publications_Rockström.pdf — PDF document, 405 KB

     Roles

     Memberships

  • Member of the International Science Councils Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability
  • Member of German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
  • Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
  • Member of the European Investment Bank Advisory Group
  • Chair of the International Advisory Board at the Stockholm Resilience Centre

    • Awards (Selection)

    • Virchow Prize (2024)
    • Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2024)
    • Tagesspiegel: TOP100 Heads of Berlin Science (2024)
    • TIME100, most influential people in the world (2023)
    • Inductee The Earth Hall of Fame KYOTO (2022)
    • Laureate, Hillary Institute of International leadership (2017)
    • French distinction Knight of the Legion of Honour (2016)
    • Environmental Award (Deutscher Umweltpreis) (2015)
    • International Cosmos Prize (2015)
    • Zoological Society of London Award for Conservation Innovation (2015)
    • The Woods Hole Research Center's Lawrence Huntington Environmental Prize (2014)
    • Marsh Award for Climate Change Research, British Ecological Society (2013)
    • Agronomist of the Year, Swedish Association of Professional Scientists (2013)
    • Sweden’s Most Influential Person on the Environment, MiljöAktuellt (2012, 2013), and within the top 10 (2010, 2011, 2014)FOKUS magazine Swede of the Year (2009)

    As a compelling speaker, he engages with popular media on issues relating to sustainable development. Most notably:

    Director RockströmPlanetary BoundariesBiodiversityTipping Elements1.5/2°C limitSustainable DevelopmentGlobal CommonsFood / Agriculture