Ariadne report shows cost-efficient pathways to climate neutrality 2045 in Germany
06.03.2025 – The new German government is still being formed, but one thing seems clear: the goal of climate neutrality by 2045 remains. Researchers from the Kopernikus project Ariadne, with significant participation from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), have now calculated how much this will cost. According to the study, the necessary investments will be largely offset by reduced spending on fossil fuels. Depending on the scenario, the additional cost of the transformation can be limited through cost-efficient climate protection to an annual average of 16 to 26 billion euros – 0.4 to 0.7 percent of current economic output – between now and 2045. European coordination of energy and climate policy is key to minimising costs.
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EU climate Advisory Board outlines recommendations to scale up carbon removals
21.02.2025 – The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC) has today published a report on scaling up carbon dioxide removals. The report outlines key actions for the EU to accelerate the deployment of carbon dioxide removals, emphasising their potential to drive innovation, restore ecosystems and create economic opportunities, while ensuring environmental and social safeguards.
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A wealth of evidence: PIK compiles 85,000 individual studies about climate policy
11.02.2025 – Research on climate policy is growing exponentially. Of the approximately 85,000 individual studies ever published on policy instruments for mitigating global heating, a good quarter are from 2020 or later. A study led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in the journal npj Climate Action, using machine learning methods, now shows how this vast knowledge is distributed – by instrument, country, sector and policy level – and identifies research gaps. A corresponding web tool, the “living systematic map”, will help to guide science and policy. It will be continuously updated to reflect the current state of research.
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Green hydrogen: Big gaps between ambition and implementation
14.01.2025 - In recent years, more than 60 countries have developed strategies to stimulate the market ramp-up of hydrogen, particularly in the industrial sector. However, in 2023, less than ten percent of the originally announced green hydrogen production was realised, shows a new study published in the journal ‘Nature Energy’. The main reason: hydrogen remains an expensive good for which there is little willingness to pay. Adrian Odenweller and Falko Ueckerdt from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) determine this competitiveness gap for all 1232 globally announced hydrogen projects. They advocate for a robust political strategy that is based on realistic expectations for hydrogen and closes the implementation gap.
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Climate fee on food could effectively cut greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture while ensuring a social balance
10.01.2025 - Greenhouse gas emissions in German agriculture could be significantly reduced in a socially equitable way through a climate fee on food, combined with climate dividends. This is the key finding of a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The study suggests that pricing greenhouse gas-intensive foods could help meet climate targets for agriculture while generating over 8.2 billion Euros annually. If these funds were redistributed to households through a lump-sum compensation scheme, it would ease the financial burden on households, especially those with lower incomes and at the same time encourage sustainable consumption.
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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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Climate hazards could reduce corporate earnings by up to 7 percent annually by 2035
11.12.2024 - Businesses that fail to adapt to climate risks like extreme heat could lose up to 7 percent of annual earnings by 2035, an impact comparable to nearly half of the economic losses caused by COVID-19. This is shown in a new report by the World Economic Forum, with contribution by PIK director Johan Rockström. The report aims to build a bridge between the latest scientific findings on the Earth system and their consequences for the economy.
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Energy-intensive industry: importing selected primary products and securing value creation and jobs
10.12.2024 - The competitiveness of the chemical and steel industry in Germany could be strengthened in the long term through the partial import of inexpensive green primary products and a focus on high added value in industrial processing. This is shown in a new report by scientists from the Kopernikus project Ariadne, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Ariadne researchers analyze how the German energy-intensive primary industry can become climate-neutral and remain competitive at the same time.
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Maximilian Kotz receives Leibniz Dissertation award for “The economic costs of climate change”
28.11.2024 – The 2024 Leibniz Dissertation Award has been granted to Maximilian Kotz for his outstanding research on the economic costs of climate change, completed at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He examines the economic impact of human-made climate change, specifically rising temperatures, increased variability, and more frequent extreme weather events like heavy rainfall. He received the award in the Natural and Technical Sciences category at the annual Leibniz Association meeting.
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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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COP29: PIK and KfW launch financing concept for carbon removals at world climate summit
11.11.2024 - Since the reduction of CO2 emissions is too slow to limit global heating to 1.5°C, a great deal of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere. Depending on the scenario, this will cost up to 2 percent of annual global economic output in 2050. This effort is economically imperative because the climate damage per tonne of CO2 is many times higher. However, this would overburden state budgets, so a financial architecture is needed to mobilise private capital. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and KfW, one of the world’s leading promotional banks, are now making a joint proposal at the World Climate Summit.
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PIK expertise at COP29 in Azerbaijan
11.11.2024 - The 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) takes place from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The conference brings together delegates from nearly 200 countries, including leading scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), to discuss the latest scientific findings and policy measures to mitigate the climate crisis.
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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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10 New Insights in Climate Science 2024: Heat surges risk ecosystem collapse
28.10.2024 – A new report reveals the profound consequences of rising temperatures on both the environment and human health. The ‘10 New Insights In Climate Science’ highlight how surging global temperatures are not only threatening the stability of oceans and pushing the Amazon rainforest towards collapse, but also endangering maternal and reproductive health for future generations. The annual synthesis report has been launched by a consortium of more than 80 global experts from the social and natural sciences, including researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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How a carbon central bank can turn Europe into a CO2 “eater”
17.09.2024 - The EU has decided to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. From then on, for every tonne of CO2 still emitted, one tonne would have to be taken out of the atmosphere. A European Carbon Central Bank could play a key role on the way there - and use market-based incentives to set the course for a net-negative emissions balance in the second half of the century, turning Europe into a CO2 “eater”, so to speak. Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), explained how this could work economically in the renowned “Thünen Lecture”.
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Global Warming's Economic Blow: Risks rise more rapidly for the rich
13.09.2024 - In a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), researchers analysed how erratic weather events, increasingly intensified by global warming, affect global production and consumption across different income groups.
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What Works: Groundbreaking Evaluation of Climate Policy Measures Over Two Decades
23.08.2024 - An international research team has unveiled the first comprehensive global evaluation of 1,500 climate policy measures from 41 countries across six continents. Published in the prestigious journal Science, this unprecedented study provides a detailed impact analysis of the wide range of climate policy measures implemented over the last two decades. The findings reveal a sobering reality: many policy measures have failed to achieve the necessary scale of emission reductions. Only 63 cases of successful climate policies, leading to average emission reductions of 19 percent, were identified. The key characteristic of these successful cases is the inclusion of tax and price incentives in well-designed policy mixes.
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From ocean currents to the energy transition: thousands visit PIK for Potsdam Science Day
04.05.2024 - 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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Climate change could become the most important driver of biodiversity loss by mid-century
26.04.2024 - Whereas global biodiversity has declined between 2 and 11 percent during the 20th century due to land-use change alone, climate change could become the main driver of biodiversity decline by the mid-21st century. That is the result of the largest modelling study of its kind by more than 50 scientists from over 40 institutions now published in the journal Science. The study was led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), with contribution of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
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Securing competitiveness of energy-intensive industries through structural change: The pulling power of renewables
23.04.2024 - Countries with limited potential for renewables could save up to 20 percent of costs for green steel and up to 40 percent for green chemicals from green hydrogen if they relocated their energy-intensive production and would import from countries where renewable energy is cheaper, finds a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). This ‘renewables pull’ would create strong incentives for businesses to invest in low-emission production facilities in these renewable-rich countries. Renewable-scarce countries could put all focus on down-stream production and refinement as the smart way to secure industrial competitiveness.
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38 trillion dollars in damages each year: World economy already committed to income reduction of 19 % due to climate change
17.04.2024 - Even if CO2 emissions were to be drastically cut down starting today, the world economy is already committed to an income reduction of 19 % until 2050 due to climate change, a new study published in “Nature” finds. These damages are six times larger than the mitigation costs needed to limit global warming to two degrees. Based on empirical data from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) assessed future impacts of changing climatic conditions on economic growth and their persistence.
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Transforming energy, land use, production and consumption to safeguard Global Commons
22.03.2024 - Transforming energy, land use, production and consumption is key to safeguard Global Commons and to keep them within the safe space of the planetary boundaries. This is the result of the new Global Commons Stewardship report with contribution of researchers from the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) and PIK Director Johan Rockström. It delivers an integrated assessment of the effects of those transformations and how they interact with each other.
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Not in my backyard? Wind turbines have little effect on US property values
19.03.2024 - The value of houses in the United States within a wind turbine’s viewshed drop only slightly and temporarily due to the disrupted view, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows. The effect is smaller the further away the recently installed turbines are, and fades over time. The researcher’s findings shed light on the dynamics between renewable energy infrastructure and local property values, providing valuable insights for sustainable and community-friendly energy development.
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Edenhofer on the presentation of the German government's Carbon Management Strategy
26.02.2024 - Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, recently presented key points for a Carbon Management Strategy and a draft law based on it to amend the Carbon Dioxide Storage Act as well as the key points for a Long-term Strategy for Negative Emissions to deal with unavoidable remaining emissions. Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), was invited to the launch of the concepts and analysed them from a scientific point of view.
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Electrification or hydrogen? Both have distinct roles in the European energy transition
16.02.2024 - A key step to achieving climate neutrality in the European Union is to rapidly shift from fossil fuels to electric technologies powered by renewable energies, a new study shows. At the same time, hydrogen produced from electricity will also be indispensable in hard-to-electrify sectors such as aviation, shipping and chemicals. By 2050, electrification and hydrogen are the key strategies to reach climate neutrality based on renewable power. Future EU transformation scenarios modeled by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK investigate the roles of electrification and hydrogen and find that shares of 42-60% for electricity and 9-26% for hydrogen-based energy are required in total energy consumption by 2050.
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Transforming food systems could create multi-trillion dollars of economic benefits every year
29.01.2024 - Transforming food systems around the world would lead to socio-economic benefits summing up to 5 to 10 trillion USD a year, shows a new global policy report produced by leading economists and scientists of the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC). The most ambitious and comprehensive study of food system economics so far underlines that food systems are currently destroying more value than they create and that an overhaul of food system policies is urgently needed. On the other hand, the cost of transformation would be much lower than the potential benefits, offering a better life to hundreds of millions of people.
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EU climate Advisory Board: EU needs to significantly accelerate its emission reductions
18.01.2024 - More efforts are needed across all sectors to achieve the EU climate objectives from 2030 to 2050, states a new report by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (ESABCC). Specifically, the report “Towards EU climate neutrality: progress, policy gaps and opportunities” identifies main gaps in the EU’s post-2030 climate policy, with providing a stable investment outlook for renewables and the revision of the EU energy taxation as pressing issues.
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Real progress, yet transition away from fossil fuels too vague: PIK Assessment on COP28 closing
13.12.2023 - After two weeks of negotiations, the UN climate summit COP28 in Dubai closed. More than 70.000 people from all over the world took part in the conference focused on the first Global Stocktake of climate plans and further steps for international climate action from 30 November to 13 December. Among them were PIK Directors Ottmar Edenhofer and Johan Rockström.
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10 New Insights in Climate Science at COP28: Rapid fossil fuels phase-out crucial for minimising 1.5°C overshoot
12/03/2023 - Today, global experts in social and natural sciences have unveiled the annual 10 New Insights in Climate Science report. The report represents the efforts of 67 leading researchers, including several scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), to synthesize the latest insights in climate change research in order to help inform negotiations at the ongoing COP28 and policy implementation through 2024 and beyond.
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A fifth higher: Tropical cyclones substantially raise the Social Cost of Carbon
11/23/2023 - Extreme events like tropical cyclones have immediate impacts, but also long-term implications for societies. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications now finds: Accounting for the long-term impacts of these storms raises the global Social Cost of Carbon by more than 20 percent, compared to the estimates currently used for policy evaluations. This increase is mainly driven by the projected rise of tropical-cyclone damages to the major economies of India, USA, China, Taiwan, and Japan under global warming.
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