Girls' Day gives schoolgirls from all over Germany an insight into climate impact research
04/22/2021 – On Girls' Day - 'Future Prospects for Girls' this year, schoolgirls were once again given an insight into the work at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to discover career prospects in science. Due to the pandemic, this year's Girls' Day took place digitally, allowing for the first time girls from all over Germany to get to know PIK instead of usually just girls from Potsdam and Berlin. Climate researchers Ronja Reese and Constanze Werner talked about their work and answered everything the girls wanted to know in an open question session.
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Online European Geosciences Union 2021 with strong PIK participation
04/21/2021 - One of the largest scientific meetings worldwide, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, virtually brings together geoscientists from all over the planet – amongst them many scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). From 19 to 30 April 2021, the EGU covers all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences and provides a forum where scientists, especially early-career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience.
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The future of Lower Saxony: Expert report with PIK participation published
03/25/2021 - Climate change, advancing digitalization and demographic changes: These are just three examples of current social challenges for the future of Lower Saxony. On the initiative of the state government, an independent scientific commission with various researchers - including PIK researcher Hermann Lotze-Campen - has developed recommendations for the state. Today, the Commission Niedersachsen 2030 handed over its prepared report to the state government.
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UN water prize for PIK researcher Zbigniew Kundzewicz
03/23/2021 - In a ceremony attended by UN Secetary General António Gutteres, a prestigious prize has been awarded to PIK researcher Zbigniew Kundzewicz from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, and the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is one of this year's Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prizes for Water, sponsored by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the permanent mission of Saudi Arabia to the UN. Kundzewicz received the prize in the category “Surface Water”.
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A constructive approach to climate protection: Potsdam Climate Council with PIK participation
02 / 22 / 2021 - Sociologist Fritz Reusswig of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has been appointed to the new Climate Council of the state capital Potsdam. Hosted by Bernd Rubelt, Councillor for Urban Development, Construction, Economy and Environment, the members introduced themselves to the public today . The Climate Council acts as a mediator, expert and facilitator for successful climate protection and aims to create a broad debate and visibility in the state capital Potsdam.
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Winter weather, a polar front – and areas of drought: PIK's assessment of the current weather situation.
02/12/2021 - In January and February of 2021, parts of Europe, America and also Germany have experienced partly extreme winter weather. Nevertheless, there are widespread large areas of drought especially in Germany - PIK researchers Stephan Rahmstorf and Fred Hattermann on current climate-related weather changes.
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From droughts to floods: climate change and migration in Peru
02/10/2021 - Too much, too little water: People in Peru are increasingly experiencing climate extremes. If climate impacts like water-related hazards continue to accelerate, more climate-induced migration and severe pressure on people’s well-being could be the consequence. These are the key results of a comprehensive report by a team of natural and social scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that was presented today during a joint event.
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Climate change may have played an important role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2
02/05/2021 - Global greenhouse gas emissions have made the likely site of origin of SARS-CoV-2 in southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses over the past century, by driving growth of forest habitat favoured by bats. This is the key finding of a new study by scientists from the University of Cambridge, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, and the University of Hawaii. Published today in the journal Science of the Total Environment, the researchers provide the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Climate change and conflict: PIK researchers give policy advice to the German government
02/03/2021 - Training programs on environmental peacebuilding, pooling international expertise to deal with acute risks of violence, and an even stronger focus on gender roles in crisis regions - these are some of the concrete recommendations for action made by the German government's advisory council for civilian crisis prevention and peacebuilding in its latest study on the interactions between climate impacts and security.
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Deeper cooperation between PIK and BMZ
01/20/2021 - During today's kick-off event of the "Berlin Insights Series on Climate Change and Development", Johan Rockström from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and State Secretary Martin Jäger from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which marks the beginning of a deeper cooperation between PIK and BMZ.
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ISIMIP and PROCLIAS online Workshop 2021 very successful
15/01/2021 - The online Cross-Sectoral ISIMIP and PROCLIAS Workshop took place last week. The workshop attracted more than 400 participants from all over the world and from a large variety of scientific backgrounds. The workshop featured a large variety of thematic sessions as well as the kick-off of the new COST Action PROCLIAS, which is linked to ISIMIP.
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Special Issue in Climatic Change: PIK Scientists Refine Hydrological Model Evaluation Methods
01/05/2021 - Tools to project the availability of freshwater are becoming ever more important under climate change and growing population. Yet mathematical hydrological models, while being valuable instruments for impact assessment, may contribute to uncertainties, especially if not properly evaluated.
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Farmers in focus: Effects of elevated CO2 concentration on crops
12/11/2020 - Agriculture is a key socio-economic sector that both influences the climate and is exposed to climate impacts. To reach targets on food security, protection of biodiversity and the natural environment as well as on climate mitigation for the global common land, it is crucial to know how and where climate change and increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 affect crops. Decision makers and farmers need to quantify the risks to their sector and evaluate sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies. An international team of agro-climatic experts, including PIK researcher Christoph Müller, has reviewed existing crop models that are used for these climate change risk assessments: While the size of CO2 fertilization effects is still uncertain to some extent, their results, published in Nature Food today, suggest that presenting crop modelling results without accounting elevated CO2 simulations are obsolete and don't offer added value to decision makers.
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Low food prices, high energy use: The pros and cons of emerging technology in our food system
12/08/2020 - An international team of scientists, including PIK researchers, has identified the potential impacts emerging from food system technologies in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals. In a new study, that has been published in Lancet Planetary Health, they find that while new technologies and innovation can help fix some issues with the food system, they also have far-reaching impacts. These can cause disruption and unintended consequences, some beneficial and some not, for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Food system innovation will be key to succeed, but new technologies need to be guided by science-based targets to avoid trade-offs and rebound effects.
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FABLE Report 2020: Pathways to sustainable land-use and food systems
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium has presented an updated plan on how countries can meet mid-century objectives on food security, healthy diets, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, forest conservation, and freshwater use. In part coordinated by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), FABLE's mission is to mobilize top knowledge institutions from 20 countries to support the development of decision-support tools and long-term pathways towards sustainable food and land-use systems.
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The climate crisis makes people ill - four proposals towards a healthy future
12/03/2020 - Today the 2020 Lancet Countdown, the new report on the relationship between health and climate change, has been released. It shows that the health risks posed by a changing climate are increasing worldwide, including Germany - and that countermeasures are possible.
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”Highly Cited Scientists 2020” ranking: success for PIK researchers
11/18/2020 – The “Highly Cited Scientists” list once again features a number of PIK researchers. Twelve of them rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the 2020 Web of Science citation index, which is an indicator of scientific relevance. It is a remarkable success that the listed researchers are almost equally distributed across PIK departments and natural and social sciences. Many of them scored well in the “cross field” category of the ranking. The two Directors on the list, representing two important fields – Johan Rockström with Earth System Science and Ottmar Edenhofer with Economy –, are confirming the overarching result: high level transdisciplinary research earns international recognition.
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Starved, stuffed and squandered: New study reveals consequences of decades of global nutrition transition
11/18/2020 - Just a handful of rice and beans – a part of our world is starved. Hawaiian Pizza and ice-cream – another part of our world is stuffed, throwing away food every day. This gap is likely to worsen, while food waste will increase and pressure on the environment will go up, a new study shows. Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) assessed the consequences if the current nutrition transition, from scarce starch-based diets towards processed foods and animal products, continues – the calculations combine, for the first time, estimates for under- and overweight, food composition and waste. Their findings provide a startling look ahead: By 2050, more than 4 billion people could be overweight, 1.5 billion of them obese, while 500 million people continue to be underweight.
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Sabine Gabrysch appointed to Advisory Council of the Federal Government
15.10.2020 - The Federal Cabinet has appointed new members to the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Six of the nine Advisory Council members were appointed for the first time, including Sabine Gabrysch from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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Launch of climate risk analysis for Ethiopia’s agricultural sector
24/09/2020 - Today, PIK researchers from the working group Adaptation in Agricultural Systems launched a newly published climate risk analysis for Ethiopia’s agricultural sector in a virtual event organised by the Ethiopian Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission as well as the German Embassy in Ethiopia. During the webinar, Christoph Gornott and Lisa Murken presented key insights from the study. This was followed by a panel debate with climate change adaptation experts and government representatives from Ethiopia, who discussed avenues for bringing the results into practice.
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Reversing the Loss of Biodiversity: Researchers Present Ambitious Plan
09/10/2020 - The rapid extinction of animal and plant species could be reversed by 2050 – by doing two things: Investing in better land-use management and transforming agriculture and the food industry. A new study by an international team of scientists, including Hermann Lotze-Campen, Alexander Popp, and Florian Humpenöder from the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research, lays out what it will take to reverse the current alarming trends of biodiversity loss – without endangering other important Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly.
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Hagen Koch bei Frontal 21
25/08/2020 - In der Frontal 21-Sendung des gestrigen Abends spricht Dr. Hagen Koch aus der Arbeitsgruppe 'Hydroklimatische Risiken' über die niedrigen Abflüsse bzw. die hohe Verdunstung in der Lausitz und die Auswirkungen auf das Vorhaben der touristischen Nutzung des Cottbusser Sees, der durch die Flutung des ehemaligen Tagebaus 'Cottbus Nord' entsteht.
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“One Health”: PIK researcher Sabine Gabrysch appointed to BMZ advisory council
08/14/2020 - What can we learn from the current Corona pandemic, especially with regards to the relationship between people and the planet? How are human and animal health, environment, climate and biodiversity linked? The advisory council ‘One Health’, recently established by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), looks into such questions – and Sabine Gabrysch, head of PIK´s Research Department on Climate Resilience and Charité Professor, has been appointed as a member.
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Do you have a minute? Short clips on the research of RD2 scientists
23/07/2020 - In the new online-series 'do you have a minute' featured on PIK's YouTube channel, scientists share one key number from their research with the world in under one minute.
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DBU Scholship for Lukas Mogge
21/07/2020 - RD2 Scientist Lukas Mogge was awarded a PhD scholarschip from the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) for his research on 'Living with climate risks: Exposure to extreme weather events and household adaptation in rural Mongolia'
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Innovations for sustainability in a post-pandemic future
07/07/2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the world into turmoil and disrupted the status quo, but it is also providing opportunities for innovation in the way we live and work. According to the latest report released by The World in 2050 (TWI2050) initiative, the crisis can lead to creating sustainable societies with higher levels of wellbeing for all. Beyond political will, small-scale, granular innovations that are affordable and can be widely applied are key here.
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World Food Convention 2020 features keynote by Professor Lotze-Campen on food security
06/24/2020 - The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the volatility of our global food supply. In his keynote "Cooperation, preparation, information – how to prepare the food system for economic shocks", Professor Hermann Lotze-Campen, Head of PIK’s Climate Resilience Department, will contribute to this year's annual World Food Convention by addressing the crucial role international collaboration plays for averting future hunger crises in the wake of climate-related disasters.
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Berlin Climate and Security Conference Kicks Off Major New Risk Assessment
06/23/2020 - Climate destabilization increases risks to peace and security - to address these risks, scientists and policy-makers are teaming up to find solutions. The Berlin Climate and Security Conference (BCSC) is the global meeting place for leaders from governments, international organisations, the scientific community, the private sector and civil society to explore how climate change is impacting peace and security—and what action the international community can take to tackle climate-fragility risks. This year the high-level event, which features statements from over 14 foreign ministers, heads of state, and UN chiefs, explores the steps necessary to ensure we build a climate- and conflict-sensitive post-Covid world. It is organised by the German Federal Foreign Office, in partnership with adelphi and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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Museum für Naturkunde & PIK launch Summer School for Climate Knowledge
06/19/2020 - At the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, interested guests can use the summer holidays to strengthen their knowledge of the climate and its effects - and young people from all over Germany can take part online. The summer school is taking place in cooperation with researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and for the first time digitally. The easy-to-understand lectures and workshops complement each other, but can also be attended individually.
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Excellency rewarded
June 2020 - The research of two young scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has recently been awarded for its excellence: Xiaoxi Wang wins China Council Scholarship, Andrew McConnell receives prize from Oxford's Martin School.
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