Home › News › Latest News › Archive (News) › 2011

2011

Schellnhuber: CCS technology “should not be demonized“

09/22/2011 - The controversial issue of carbon capture and storage, CCS, is on the agenda of the German Bundesrat this week. However, the public debate about this technology is characterized by a variety of fears. It is in this context that the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, is highlighting the relevance of the sequestration of CO2 for climate change mitigation. “Scientific scenarios show that without CCS, avoiding dangerous climate change will be considerably more expensive," says Schellnhuber. “Heavy investment in other technologies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases would then become necessary.”

Cooperation with the biggest university of the southern hemisphere

09/09/2011 - The biggest university of the southern hemisphere, the Universidade de Sao Paulo, takes part in a premiere: the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Berlin Humboldt University (HU) have founded the first ever German-Brazilian Graduate College – supported as well by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research and its division for climate research and geoecology in Macau. “Dynamic processes in complex networks” are going to be – according to the College’s name – the object of research.

„Brown coal is not sustainable“: Researchers attend state government session

09/01/2011 - If Brandenburg wants to reach its climate targets, it cannot just carry on relying on power generation from brown coal. This, and more, has been stated by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week when attending the state government session. “Such an open and intensive dialogue between science and politics is anything but a matter of course,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. For the fourth time already, Brandenburg’s prime minister Matthias Platzeck invited Schellnhuber and his colleagues for a discussion on energy policy and climate change.

“Both sides benefit”: Chinese-German summer school

08/29/2011 - Together with climate scientists from Beijing, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) invited participants from Germany and China to take part in a summer school. The main focus is on water management in the light of climate change – a pressing issue in many Chinese river regions. On the Chinese side, the National Climate Centre is the academic partner, being the central institution doing research in this field. More than 40 students from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, the University of Frankfurt, the Bundeswehr University Munich and other institutions are taking part in the ten-day event.

"Coming out"

08/10/2011 - Scientists should do science, not appear in the public sphere – that’s a popular view. This week, philosophers and physicists, economists and ecologists discussed this issue in a workshop initiated by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance. “Science has to constantly follow the principle of truth”, says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of PIK. “And that is exactly why it has a societal responsibility.”

Research on algal blooms honoured

07/14/2011 - Severe algal bloom can lead to the collapse of ecosystems in lakes. How global warming might trigger this phenomenon was the subject of research by Veronika Huber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Her work has been honoured by the University of Potsdam through the award of the Michelson Prize – an annual award for the best PhD thesis in natural sciences. This honour is a further incentive for the successful promotion of young scientists at PIK.

“Australia in a hot world”

07/12/2011 - Right in the middle of a heated debate in Australia about the carbon tax just announced by the government, a scientific event in Melbourne this week sheds light on the consequences of climate change for down under. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been invited by Australian climate scientists to give the opening lecture as well as the public keynote speech plus some concluding remarks at the conference “Four degrees or more? Australia in a hot world”.

Indian Minister of Environment and Forests proposes science and politics to meet in Potsdam

07/04/2011 - Leading scientists and politicians from all over the world are to debate new pathways for international climate negotiations – this was suggested by the Indian Minister of Environment and Forests during a visit to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research this Monday. In time before the next round of negotiations of the global community of states will take place in Durban, South Africa, before the end of the year, Ramesh wants stakeholders to exchange views with the sciences. The question of a fair share of rights for greenhouse gas emissions could be central. “The work of the Potsdam Institute in this field has been groundbreaking”, Ramesh said.

Exiting from nuclear power, entering a new energy system

05/06/2011 - Exiting from nuclear power today is a consensus in Germany. It's less clear, however, how entering a new energy system should look like. What are the costs of phasing out nuclear power, depending on the timeline? Which power plant capacities have to be built using not just renewable energy sources but also additional power generation from fossil fuels? Answers to these questions will be given by a new study of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Institute for Infrastructure and Resource Management of the Leipzig University. The results are going to be presented on friday, june 10th, in Berlin.

More storms, more floods in Germany

05/25/2011 - Weather extremes caused by climate change will significantly increase damage in Germany. For the first time, scientists now developed concrete scenarios on possible effects up to the end of this century. “Major floods will appear two or three times more often in the next decades”, says Friedrich-Wilhelm Gerstengarbe from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Storm damages could potentially rise by more than 50 percent.

Sustainable change needs a new social contract

04/07/2011 - To achieve the transition to an “age of efficiency and renewables”, a scientific advisory council calls for nothing less but a reconstruction of civil society. This can only be achieved through a new kind of interaction between governments and citizens, with citizens being more involved in political decisions. As stated today by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) during the presentation of its flagship report “World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability”, massive investments in energy transformation, changes in consumption habits and the imposition of global fees on greenhouse gas emissions will be necessary in order to meet the challenge.

"The dictatorship of now": Schellnhuber in Spiegel magazine

03/22/2011 – In the light of the nuclear tragedy in Japan Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, brings forward the idea of a new social contract. In an interview with Spiegel magazine, he explains why the rights of coming generations have to be taken more seriously. “Once for all we have to decide to leave our descendants more than just nuclear risks and climate change”, Schellnhuber says. “This means empathy across space and time.”

Graduate School on land use scores well in competition for excellence

03/03/2011 - In the competition for excellence of the German Research Foundation the graduate school 'FutureLand' qualified for the finals. About 80 PhD students shall do research on issues such as climate change, agriculture, deforestation or loss of biodiversity. The project has been developed mainly by scientists from Berlin an Potsdam, led by the Humboldt Universität (HU). The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is one of the significant contributors, among other independent research institutes.

Humboldt fellow from Berkeley does research at PIK

02/25/2011 - Rice yields and electricity demand – these are two topics Max Auffhammer hopes to make good progress on while staying at PIK. Being a resource economist, he focuses on the distributional impacts of climate change. Auffhammer is a professor at the University of California in Berkeley and known for numerous seminal contributions to the science of environmental change. A fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation, he chose PIK to spend a sabbatical which started this February. “PIK’s reputation as a world leader in climate impact research made this an easy choice”, he says. “I was very much attracted by the interdisciplinary group of scholars here.”

Chief Economist of PIK speaks to EU top officials

02/10/2011 - A strong message for green growth has been sent from the Low Carbon Prosperity Summit in Brussels this week. It assembled more than 300 representatives of EU institutions and of corporations such as Shell and Nestlé. Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics and Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist and vice-director of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) gave talks on low carbon competitiveness. The event was attended by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy.

Building Exhibition 2020: PIK councils Berlin city government

02/09/2011 - The answers that urban planning can give to questions of climate change are one of the central issues of the International Building Exhibition in 2020, scheduled to happen in Berlin. Fritz Reusswig of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has been asked by the city government of Berlin to join a team of seven experts who are expected to develop some ideas. On february 10th, Reusswig, a sociologist, will participate in the first public discussion with architects and activists. "Big Cities are amongst the most important origins of global warming", Reusswig says. "So they offer the chance to actually do something against climate change."

PIK ranked as top environmental Think Tank outside the US

02/04/2011 - Top European environmental think tank 2010 is what the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has been classified in an global ranking. In the research area environment it has been placed on the fifth rank worldwide, behind four US-American institutes. The winner is the World Resources Institute in Washingont D.C. The PIK scored slightly better than last year when it was number seven behind six other institutions, all of them from the US. More than 5000 think tanks in different categories participated in this ranking.

Asking questions: New president of Leibniz-Association visits PIK

04/02/2011 - The new president of the Leibniz-Association asked quite some questions when he visited the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) this week. Which kind of data get included in the climate models developed by the institute, he asked the research domain chairs. About the details of their contracts he questioned PhD-students. Karl Ulrich Mayer, having started last year as leader of the "Scientific Association Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz", didn't just ask in order to be polite. He really wants to know what is going on at PIK - one of the 87 members of the Leibniz-Association.

"Below two degrees": annual conference of Climate-Service-Center

01/21/2011 - The Climate-Service-Center put their annual conference under the caption “below two degrees”. The CSC, which is a partner of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), invited numerous experts to debate how to limit global warming. Amongst the participants this friday in Leipzig there is Klaus Töpfer of the german Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies. Daniel Klingenfeld of PIK gives a talk about "Fairness and physics - ways towards the goal of two degrees". He's on a discussion panel with representatives of the logistics company Deutsche Post/DHL, the carbuilder Volvo and the Helmholtz Centre for environmental research.

Earth System Models of high computational efficiency

01/20/2011 - Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity have been at the center of a workshop in Potsdam this week. Participants from ten countries discussed the future of these models and their contribution to the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In contrast to state of the art Earth System Models, those with intermediate complexity show high computational efficiency, or relatively low cost. “For this reason we can perfom with these models more and longer future projections”, Andrey Ganopolski from the Potsdam Institut für Climate Impact Research (PIK) says.