LOCALISED at the European Urban Resilience Forum 2025 and ECCA2025
10/07/2025 - Towards the end of the RD2-lead EU project 'LOCALISED', the project presents their (preliminary) results on the european stage. At the European Urban Resilience Forum, the project co-organised the event and contributed to a panel discussion 'Towards climate-resilient cities: Co-creating tools and services for local action'. At the ECCA 2025 conference, the project co-organised a session with sister projects CISK, ReachOut and RethinkAction entitled 'Cross-sectoral and multi-scale climate services - upscaling of mitigation and adaptation actions'.
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Weather station in Potsdam shows driest first half-year since measurements began over 130 years ago
01.07.2025 - In the first half of 2025, rainfall levels at the weather station in Potsdam on Telegrafenberg were likely the lowest since records began in 1893. The station is a central reference point for climate observation. It is the only meteorological station in the world with a comprehensive measurement programme that has been running continuously for over 100 years. This allows current weather trends in temperature, precipitation and sunshine duration to be compared to longer-term climate trends.
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PIK strengthens Science-Policy Interface for Regional Climate Adaptation in Central Asia
29/06/2025 - From May 29–31, 2025, high-level representatives from across Central Asia convened in Dushanbe, Tajikistan for the Fourth Regional Consultation on Climate Science under the framework of the upcoming 2026 Regional Climate Summit (RCS-2026), an initiative of the President of Kazakhstan. The session, hosted as part of the High-Level International Conference on Glacier Preservation, marked a critical milestone in the region's coordinated response to accelerating climate change impacts. PIK scientists were invited to join a panel discussion and take on a leading role in the agreed upon 'Country Profiles of Climate Risks for Central Asia'.
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MAgPIE25 Workshop brings together global community of model users
23/06/2025 - The MAgPIE25 Workshop brought together an internationally diverse group of modelers interested in the application of the MAgPIE and MADRaT models in their research. Participants had the opportunity to learn and share experiences.
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AgMIP Global Workshop in Mexico
05/05/2025 - The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) organises an annual global workshop as a platform for mutual learning, exchange and networking within the crop modellers community. This year's workshop was hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. RD2 was represented by AgMIP Executive Committee member and RD2 Head of Department Prof. Hermann Lotze-Campen, Working Group Lead Dr Christoph Müller, doctoral researcher Felicitas Beier and guest researcher Lennart Jansen.
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Climate impact science for the next IPCC cycle: OptimESM-ISIMIP workshop
13.05.2025 – The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has now hosted a cross-sectoral workshop with focus on an important issue: advancing climate impact science for the next cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Reports (AR7), due to be released in 2028.
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RD2@EGU 2025
09/05/2025 - The Climate Resilience team of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) returned to Vienna this year and made some significant contributions to the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly. Over 18,000 scientists gathered to discuss the latest advancements in geosciences, with PIK researchers convening sessions and presenting their research on various topics.
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Welcome Trust-funded project ClimaKid kicks off at PIK
13/05/2025 - The ClimaKid project, led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and funded by the Wellcome Trust, has officially kicked off with a dynamic four-day workshop in April that brought together scientists from Africa, South Asia, Europe and the US.
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Topical Collection in 'Climatic Change' Journal by Prof. Fred Hattermann and Dr. Valentina Krysanova
01/03/2025 - When analysing existing trends in hydrological processes during the last decades it is important to distinguish the influences of human management and land use change from the pure effects of climate change. RD2 Scientists Fred Hattermann and Valentina Krysanova from the working group 'Hydroclimatic Risks' therefore edited a special issue/ topical collection on "Impact Attribution: Exploring the Contribution of Climate Change to Recent Trends in Hydrological Processes" in the journal 'Climatic Change'.
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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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Effective climate policy requires cooperation between science and policy makers
05/02/2025 - On 5 February 2025, Ute Bonde, Senator for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment for the State of Berlin, visited PIK together with her State Secretary for the Environment and Climate, Britta Behrendt. They met scientists from different research departments of PIK to discuss diverse topics such as adaptation to climate change and greenhouse gas reduction.
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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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PIK and UCFA receive German-African Innovation Incentive Award (GAIIA)
06/01/2025 - In December 2024, PIK scientists Christoph Gornott and Sophie von Loeben, together with Anthony Mugoya of the Uganda Coffee Farmers Alliance (UCFA), received the German-African Innovation Incentive Award – GAIIA for their research on the climate change adaptation potential of alternative coffee species. With this award, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) honours outstanding achievements of African scientists and supports the further development of research results into innovative solutions that address the societal and environmental challenges on the African continent and benefit the population.
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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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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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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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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’
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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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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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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Three pathways to achieve global climate and sustainable development goals
30.10.2024 - Sustainable lifestyles, green-tech innovation, and government-led transformation each offer promising routes to make significant progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The team of researchers examined how these strategies could transform consumption and production across different sectors, identifying both benefits and trade-offs for enhancing human well-being within planetary boundaries. Contrary to the belief that the path to sustainable development is increasingly out of reach, the results show that humankind has a variety of pathways to depart from its current unsustainable trajectory.
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New attribution studies: Increasing effects of global warming on fire dynamics and public health
21.10.2024 - 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
12.09.2024 - 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
15.07.2024 - 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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