Transforming land management within planetary boundaries key to addressing global land use crisis
2.12.2024 - 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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Climate change threatens centuries-old cultural heritage of olive trees
07/11/2024 - Along with Germany's Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Prof. Dr. Christoph Gornott, Head of the Adaptation in Agricultural Systems Group, had the opportunity to visit the already noticeable effects of climate change on olive trees in Greece. During their visit, they discussed the enormous potential of regenerative agriculture, which can help to adapt agriculture to changing climate and store CO₂ in the soil at the same time.
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Scientific Climate Council of the State of Brandenburg: ‘Climate protection is important for Brandenburg's future viability’
11/ 25/2024 - 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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Global Recognition: PIK researchers again part of the top 1% of the world’s most cited scientists
11/20/2024 - 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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European Climate Risk Assessment launched with chapter lead of Working Group Leader Christoph Müller
30/10/2024 - In spring 2024, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published the first European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) which featured contributions from several PIK and former PIK-colleagues. Together with Frank Dentener (JRC), Working Group Leader Christoph Müller was lead author for the chapter on food production and food security, one of eight thematic fact sheets of EUCRA.
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New attribution studies: Increasing effects of global warming on fire dynamics and public health
10/21/2024 - Climate change is increasingly influencing fire behavior worldwide and intensifying fire smoke, endangering public health from air pollution caused by fires. These are the results of two new climate change impact attribution studies, both published in Nature Climate Change, with involvement of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK. The first study finds 15.8 percent higher global burned areas over the period 2003 to 2019 due to climate change, intensifying fire activity especially in Australia, South America, Western North America and Siberia. These increasing fire dynamics offset the decrease in burned area due to land-use changes and increasing population density. Building on this, the second study examines how climate change is linked to a global increase in deaths from fire-related air pollution. Climate change increased these deaths from 669 annually in the 1960s to over 12,500 in the 2010s.
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Lisa Murken receives Hermann Eiselen Science Prize for excellent research
09/12/2024 - This year's prestigious Hermann Eiselen Science Award goes to Lisa Murken, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). In her work, the agricultural economist focuses on the complex relationships between land ownership and the ability of small farmers to adapt to climatic changes. The prize is awarded for outstanding scientific work whose findings contribute to improving the world's food supply.
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Congratulations Dr. Fernandez-Palomino!
02/09/2024 - Carlos Fernandez-Palomino successfully defended his PhD Thesis entitled: "Understanding Hydrological Dynamics in the Tropical Andes of Peru and Ecuador and Their Responses to Climate Change" at the University of Potsdam
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'Acker-Festival' celebrates 10-year jubilee with two-day event
30/08/2024 - The social enterprise Acker e.V. celebrated its 10 -year anniversary on 29-30 August 2024 with two events in two days. The yearly 'AckerKonferenz' on 29 August featuring speeches of Minister Cem Özdemir and Prof. Hermann Lotze-Campen and the first ever 'Ackerfest', which invited all generation to join for workshops, games and other inspiring activities towards a sustainable future for all.
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Research on climate resilient coffee featured in TV-documentary
06/08/2024 - At the beginning of 2024 our scientist Sophie von Loeben was accompanied to Uganda by a film team of the German national TV station ZDF to feature her research on innovative solutions for a climate-resilient future for coffee as part of their documentary series “planb”.
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PIK's activities at the Valencia Cities Climate Week
29/07/2024 - From June 25-28, 2024, PIK projects EUCityCalc and LOCALISED took part in the Valencia Cities Climate Week, a key event celebrating Valencia's status as the European Green Capital 2024. The week included several important gatherings such as the EUCityCalc Final Conference, the Energy Cities Annual Forum, and the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO). These events were organized by the City of Valencia in collaboration with the European Commission, Energy Cities, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, and NetZeroCities.
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Congratulations Dr. Romanovska!
10/07/2024 - Paula Romanovska successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Harnessing climate data to assess, anticipate and attribute climate impacts on agriculture" at the University of Kassel.
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New Brandenburg Climate Council chaired by Hermann Lotze-Campen
07/15/2024 - Hermann Lotze-Campen from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has been appointed chair of the new Brandenburg Scientific Climate Advisory Board. The 12-member committee will advise and support the state government in achieving its climate protection goals. The establishment of the Climate Advisory Board is part of the climate plan adopted by the state government in March 2024.
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University of Kassel and PIK collaborate to develop climate courses for Pakistani universities
05/07/2024 - Higher education can play a critical role in training future leaders, scientists and policymakers to address the pressing challenges of climate change. However, in many lower-income countries such as Pakistan there are gaps when it comes to climate education, in particular with regards to courses at the bachelor’s and master's level and from an interdisciplinary perspective. To address these shortcomings, a team from the University of Kassel and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research led by Prof. Dr. Christoph Gornott, along with Pakistani and international experts, developed six climate courses for Pakistani universities.
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From value-free to value-conscious: Report from the workshop “Identifying Value-Judgements in Climate Impact Science
21/06/2024 - The workshop "Identifying Value-Judgements in Climate Impact Science” brought together more than 40 climate scientists and philosophers at PIK to explore the presence and impact of value-laden assumptions and methodological choices within climate impact research.
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PIK meets Institute for Planetary Health Behaviour
12/06/2024 - The Climate Change and Health team at PIK invited a team of researchers from the Institute for Planetary Behavior (IPB) of the University of Erfurt to the historic location of the Telegraphy Hill for an exchange on planetary health and climate change.
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Paving the way for carbon pricing with green alternatives
06/17/2024 - The political success of climate change mitigation in Europe will depend on how well policy design enables consumers to switch from fossil fuels to clean green energy sources, researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz argue. To accept carbon pricing, citizens desire viable alternatives to fossil-fuel based options, the authors of a new Comment published in Nature Climate Change write. They suggest a new argument for how to understand the public’s response to carbon pricing and how to ensure successful climate policy.
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Before the next wave of heat protection
24/05/2024 - The German Minister of Health Prof. Karl Lauterbach hosted a conference on the progress towards an effective strategy to protect our health against heat stress. He invited experts from various areas of preventive healthcare to discuss progress made in science and business at the Ministry of Health in Berlin. Around 50 participants from various areas of preventive healthcare attended. The PIK was represented by Dr. Peter Hoffmann from the 'Hydrological Risks' Department of Research Department 2, Climate Resilience.
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Congratulation Dr. Maskell!
26/04/2024 - Gina Maskell successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "On the Use of Remote Sensing and Household Data to Track Progress on Autonomous Adaptation: Evidence in a Coffee Farming System" at the University of Kassel.
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UNDP and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) host stakeholder discussions on water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus in Turkmenistan and Central Asia
15/05/2024 - Researchers from the 'Hydrological Risks' team of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) held a joint workshop in Ashgabat on 14 May 2024 on "Strengthening Climate Resilience of the Water-energy-food-ecosystem Nexus in Turkmenistan and Central Asia".
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From ocean currents to the energy transition: thousands visit PIK for Potsdam Science Day
05/04/2024 - Under the motto "Research. Discover. Join in.", the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), together with the other Telegrafenberg institutes, hosted this year's Potsdam Science Day. On the first Saturday in May 6,200 interested visitors came to find out about the work of researchers at PIK at information stands, lectures and hands-on experiments in the sunshine and spring-like temperatures.
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Towards the next steps in climate impact research and ISIMIP4: ISIMIP-PROCLIAS workshop was a great success
22-26/04/2024 - From including adaptation to climate change in climate impact simulations to the road towards the next IPCC cycle - the cross-sectoral ISIMIP-PROCLIAS workshop covered a broad variety of topics and featured high-level discussion sessions on how to align future climate impact research with the IPCC timelines and ScenarioMIP process.
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RD2@EGU 2024
01/05/2024 - This year once more, the Climate Resilience team of PIK took the opportunity to present their recent findings at one of the world's greatest scientific events, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna. This year, the conference in Vienna attracted over 18,000 researchers from all over the world eager to discuss their research with peers.
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Successful training in Peru lead by Carlos Palomino Fernandez in the framework of the ProGIRH project
24-26/04/2024 - How can we tackle climate change and build a better future? To better answer this question the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the ProGIRH Project of the German Cooperation (GIZ) collaboratively organised the training workshop "Hydrological modeling and assessment of climate change impacts on water availability" at the National Water Authority (ANA) from April 24 to 26 in Lima, Peru.
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Climate Resilience team at internal medicine conference 'DGIM'
13-16/04/2024 - The 130th Conference of the German Society of Internal Medicine 'DGIM' in Bonn attracted a wide range of medical experts in the field. One of the focus points of the conference was 'climate crisis and health'. Prof. Hermann Lotze-Campen, Dr. Lisa Pörtner and other researchers from PIK presented their findings with posters and presentations on the topic.
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Girls' Day 2024 at PIK: Exciting insights into climate research
04/25/2024 - More than 15,000 options, around 135,000 spots available across Germany, more schoolgirls than ever before: this year's Girls' Day has set new records. At the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), 19 girls from Berlin and Brandenburg had the opportunity to take an exclusive look behind the scenes at the institute.
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Kick-Off KARO Project
19/04/2024 - In April, the research project KARO - Climate-resilient cultivation methods for risk optimisation with special consideration of the objectives of the arable farming strategy and its regional requirements - funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture was launched. The main objective of KARO is the region-specific further development of existing production systems in crop cultivation in their regional context in order to make them more resilient to climate change phenomena.
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PIK research among most cited papers in policy documents worldwide
04/19/2024 - Three research papers conducted by PIK director Johan Rockström are among the top ten most cited papers in policy documents. This is according to an analysis of data provided to the journal Nature.
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Digital ministers visit PIK
04/18/2024 - The digital ministers of the German federal states visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the other research institutes on the Telegrafenberg in the course of their constituent meeting. PIK Director Ottmar Edenhofer presented the work of PIK and provided insights into important research projects.
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13th German Climate Conference at Telegrafenberg in Potsdam
12-14/3/2024 - The previous year 2023 was the hottest year ever, while weather conditions are showing increasingly significant and influential changes. This year's 13th German Climate Conference at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam therefore focused on adaptation and climate services, but also covered a wide range of topics from weather extremes to biodiversity and sustainability.
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