CO2 emissions at record high in 2023
05.12.2023 - Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use will amount to 36.8 billion tonnes in 2023, a record high that exceeds the 2022 level by 1.1% - the latest Global Carbon Budget report finds. This is a long way off the significant reductions that are needed to reach the Paris Agreement climate goals.
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Allianz Climate Risk Award for Rahel Laudien
01/12/2023 - Rahel Laudien, scientist and crop modeller at the 'Adaptation in Agricultural Systems' working group is one of 12 scientists receiving the 'Allianz Climate Risk Award' this year. The award honours early career scientists in the field of extreme weather events and climate change impacts for their innovative ideas towards sustainable resilience.
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Fred Hattermann appointed Honorary Professor for Climate Change and Hydrology at HNE Eberswalde
01/12/2023 - Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development has appointed Fred Hattermann, Working Group Leader of 'Hydroclimatic Risks' at PIK, to a Honorary Professorship of Climate Change and Hydrology at the Department of Forestry and Environment.
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How attribution science can quantify losses and damages
01/12/2023 – Low agricultural yields with devastating consequences can in many cases already be attributed to climate change, show PIK scientists in a contribution to the latest flagship report series “The Impact of Disasters on Agriculture and Food Security” published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The research lays out how large-ensemble climate data and impact modelling can be used together to quantify losses and damages caused by anthropogenic climate change.
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Music meets science: Hermann Lotze-Campen at "Sustainable Listening" event
01/11/2023 - The "Sustainable Listening" series at the 'Staatsoper Unter den Linden' in Berlin combines concert music and scientific impulse speeches in a walk-in climate capsule. In the fourth iteration of this innovative format, Prof. Hermann Lotze-Campen addresses the current challenges facing food systems accompanied by live music played by the 'Orchestra of Change'
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PIK hydrologist leads course on hydrological modeling of climate change impacts on water availability in Peru
23/11/2023 - RD2 scientist and hydrology researcher Carlos Fernandez Palomino moderated and led the "Hydrological Modeling and Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Water Availability" course in Huancayo, Peru from November 15 to 17, 2023.
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Workshop on climate-friendly construction at PIK
13- 15/11/2023 - In the framework of a Connective Cities dialogue event around 40 international participants discussed for three days at PIK about “Towards a Climate Positive Built Environment Using Bio-based and Re-used Materials”. The participants from municipal government, business, and civil society gave presentations to one another and shared their expertise. They explored specific local project ideas on how to progress climate-friendly construction.
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Workshop on climate-friendly construction at PIK
13- 15/11/2023 - In the framework of a Connective Cities dialogue event around 40 international participants discussed for three days at PIK about “Towards a Climate Positive Built Environment Using Bio-based and Re-used Materials”. The participants from municipal government, business, and civil society gave presentations to one another and shared their expertise. They explored specific local project ideas on how to progress climate-friendly construction.
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Workshop on climate-friendly construction at PIK
15/11/2023 - In the framework of a Connective Cities dialogue event approximately 40 international participants met at PIK for three days in a workshop entitled “Towards a Climate Positive Built Environment Using Bio-based and Re-used Materials”. Participants from municipal government, business, and civil society including Mayor of Potsdam Mike Schubert, gave presentations, shared their expertise and explored local project ideas on how to progress climate-friendly construction.
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Congratulations Dr. Mogge and Dr. Röckert!
17/11/2023 - On October 16, Lukas Mogge and Julian Röckert successfully defended their PhD theses at Ruhr University Bochum.
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Highly Cited: PIK scientists among top 1% of the world's most cited researchers
11/15/2023 – For the sixth year in a row, numerous researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) are among the top 1 percent of the renowned “Highly Cited Researchers” worldwide. The influential ranking, published by Clarivate Analytics' science platform Web of Science, is based on the number of times scientists' papers are cited by other researchers – a very important indicator of scientific relevance. The 2023 edition includes eight PIK researchers from different research departments, also PIK Director Johan Rockström.
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Novel perspectives on cross-border cascading climate change impacts and systemic risks
10/27/2023 – Transitioning towards climate-adaptive and resilient societies – that was the overarching aim of the conference “Cross-border climate change impacts and systemic risks in Europe and beyond” at Potsdam-Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK). For three days in mid-October, 150 scientists from all over the world came together across disciplines to better understand and respond to the emerging topic of cross-border climate impacts and risks.
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Four large-scale household data collections implemented to support research on climate change adaptation in agricultural systems
25/10/2023 - Over the past year, the working group 'Adaptation in Agricultural Systems' (AAS) started implementing four large-scale household data collections. These data collections will support the overall aim of better integrating empirical- and model-based research on climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector within the AAS group.
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Diabetes, dementia, depression: Adapting fuel taxes could benefit people’s health
10/13/2023 - The health benefits from walking and cycling are so significant that they should be included in fuel tax design, shows of a new study published in the journal Economica. Optimal fuel tax rates would increase by 44% in the US and by 38% in the UK if the costs for the health system that arise from too little exercise were taken into account. The revenue could be used for low-carbon transport or to compensate affected households to build support for sustainable transport.
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Meat taxes can be designed to avoid overburdening low-income households
04/10/2023 - As low-income households spend a much larger share of their earnings on food, consumption taxes on meat tend to hit them harder. New research, published in Nature Food, indicates how meat tax design and redistribution of tax revenues can ease such adverse distributional impacts.
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Urban Transformations team receive Outstanding Article Award of Sustainability Science Journal
02/10/2023 - The paper "A systems model of SDG target influence on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" co-authored by RD2 scientists Anne Warchold, Prajal Pradhan and Jürgen Kropp, received the Outstanding Article Award conducted by the Sustainability Science Journal for papers published in 2022.
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On the DWD's Summer Report 2023: In the midst of climate change
08/30/2023 - The German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) has presented its 2023 summer report. PIK researcher Fred Hattermann comments: "This year's precipitation cannot compensate for the precipitation deficit that has accumulated over the past years."
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From Australia back to Germany: PIK Alumna Katharina Waha appointed professor at University Augsburg
01/08/2023 - After 8 years abroad, in which she continued to work together with the 'Landuse and Resilience' Working Group at PIK as a guest researcher, Katharina Waha has accepted an appointment as 'Professor for Climate Resilience and Human-Made Ecosystems' at the newly created 'Centre for Climate Resilience' in Augsburg.
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Empowering Himalayan Sustainability: Workshop Strengthens Teaching and Research on SDGs
16/08/2023 - The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand hosted a 3-day workshop titled "Strengthening Teaching and Research on Sustainable Development Goals: Curriculum Transfer and Capacity Building" from 13-16 August 2023. The workshop is a part of the ForHimSDG (Promoting Himalayan Development by Strengthening Teaching and Research on Sustainable Development Goals) project, lead by PIK in collaboration with the AIT and Kathmandu University and funded by DAAD.
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Uzbek Minister of Ecology Visits Potsdam Institute for Climate Research to Enhance German-Uzbek Collaboration
22/06/2023 Uzbekistan's Minister of Ecology, Natural Resources and Climate Change Mr. Aziz Abdukhakimov, led a delegation to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) to meet with scientist and hydrology experts. The visit aimed to strengthen German-Uzbek collaboration in science, higher education, and capacity building to address the pressing issue of climate change in Uzbekistan.
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Women’s diet quality in India could be improved by forest foods
06/22/2023 - Wild foods from forests and common land play an important role in improving the quality of diets among Indian women, a new study finds. The harvest of wild, nutritious food, especially during June and July, is of vital importance to vulnerable women in India, where more than 80 percent are estimated to be micronutrient deficient and suffer from poor health.
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PIK expertise at "Leibniz in the Bundestag"
05/26/2023 - From hydrogen to the EU climate goals, from moorland protection to the animal welfare tax: researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) were represented across all research areas with numerous topics at "Leibniz in the Bundestag". With this political format, the Leibniz Association annually offers members of the German Bundestag one-on-one discussions with scientists.
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Large-scale nature conservation efforts alone will not preserve benefits for our societies
05/16/2023 - The enlargement of protected areas and carbon price incentives for reforestation alone will not stop biodiversity decline and the ongoing loss of critical ecosystem functions, if they are not accompanied by measures that also target managed landscapes. A new study published in Nature Communications, led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), shows that even in scenarios with a high demand for land it is possible to maintain biodiversity-friendly landscapes, which also provide critical services such as pollination and healthy soils. The research demonstrates that land use is not a zero-sum game but that it matters where farmland is located in order to promote landscape diversity. With the right incentives, farmed landscapes could be managed in a way that enhances the numerous benefits nature offers to society and that support the biodiversity conservation targets of protected areas.
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High-level Pakistani delegation visit at PIK
05/12/2023 - A high-level Pakistani delegation, along with the GIZ Pakistan, visited the PIK research department Climate Resilience, to exchange ideas and approaches related to climate impacts and adaptation in the Pakistani context.
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Sustainability beyond Sustainable Development Goals – ERC grant for Prajal Pradhan
02/24/2023 - For his proposal “Transformation towards long-term sustainability beyond Sustainable Development Goals” Prajal Pradhan, senior scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) receives the highly prestigious HORIZON Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) amounting to 1,5 million Euro.
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From forest resilience to power grids to loss and damage: PIK Research Days
02/22/2023 - Hot topics were presented in talks and discussed among scientists at the annual ‘Research Days’ of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Virtually all members of the institute gathered for the 2-day exchange, the first one which happened face-to-face after the online-only times of COVID pandemic. Once a year, the entire institute comes together to update one another on its findings, new methods and challenges – and to discuss new frontiers to be investigated.
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FABLE: How to get food and land use systems on track
02/03/2023 - Sustainable futures for food and land use systems are only possible with coordinated, major efforts around the world in the next decade. This is what a team of researchers, including PIK, from 20 countries found by using FABLE (Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use and Energy) modeling tools. The results are now published in a Special Issue.
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Berlin could produce much of its vegetables locally
01/27/2023 - Berlin could produce a surprisingly large proportion of its vegetable requirements itself if unused areas were used for this purpose, such as flat roofs, allotments, cemetery areas that are no longer in use, or even supermarket parking lots. Researchers have now calculated this. However, the use of this land is tied to many preconditions.
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Climate, Development, Economics - Kati Krähnert is a Professor at RWI and Bochum University
01/20/2023 - From Potsdam's Telegrafenberg to the Ruhr - since January 1, 2023, Kati Krähnert is Professor of Climate Change and Development at the Faculty of Economics at Ruhr University Bochum. There she researches how the lives of people in the Global South are affected by climate change and how policies need to be designed if they are to improve household climate resilience. She was appointed jointly by the Ruhr University and RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research.
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Smart nitrogen management can strongly reduce pollution
01/06/2023 - To increase food and feed supply, agriculture has used more and more industrial nitrogen fertilizers and manure. However, over half of these nitrogen inputs to croplands are currently lost to the environment, contributing to air pollution and its related diseases, water eutrophication, soil acidification, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Nitrogen pollution has become a global challenge and next crisis. An international team of researchers explored cost-effective nitrogen mitigation strategies for global croplands in a new study, now published in Nature.
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