A new study published today in Geophysical Research Letters by Rahmstorf and Foster of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research presents the first statistically robust evidence that global warming has measurably accelerated since 2015. The Core… Read More »New Research: Climate Change is Accelerating – It’s Getting Hotter Faster!
“Our land systems are at a breaking point,” says Johan Rockström, lead author of the planetary boundaries framework. “We stand at a precipice and must decide whether to step back and take transformative action or… Read More »New Report: Urgent Action Needed to Transform Global Land Use and Combat Degradation
Imagine you could give Earth a physical, complete with diagnostic tools, lab results, and a concerned doctor ready to offer advice. Well, the newly launched *Planetary Health Check* (PHC) is basically that – but for… Read More »The First Planetary Health Check Report Issues Red Alert – Highlights interconnectedness
The fate of our future coastlines might be determined by the actions we take today to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A new study, including contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), sheds… Read More »Future Sea-Level Rise Hangs on Emission Cuts Today, Study Shows
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… Read More »Evaluating Climate Policy Measures Over Two Decades
Researchers call for a new “Climate Endgame” agenda and say far too little work has gone into understanding the mechanisms by which rising temperatures might pose a “catastrophic” risk to society and humanity: For instance,… Read More »Considering catastrophe: high-impact, low-probability climate scenarios “dangerously underexplored”
Heatwaves over Europe have increased three to four times faster than in the rest of the northern mid-latitudes like the US or Canada, a new study finds. An international team of scientists looked at observational… Read More »Increase in western Europe heatwaves linked to changes in jet stream
The major Atlantic ocean current, to which also the Gulf stream belongs, may have been losing stability in the course of the last century. This is shown in a new study published in Nature Climate… Read More »Is AMOC, a major Atlantic ocean current system approaching a critical threshold?
Under global warming, tipping elements in the Earth system can destabilize each other and eventually lead to climate domino collapse effects. The ice sheets on Greenland and West Antarctica are potential starting points for tipping… Read More »Tipping points can destabilize each other, leading to climate domino collapse effects
Scientists have detected new early-warning signals indicating that the central-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet may undergo a critical transition relatively soon. Because of rising temperatures, a new study by researchers from Germany and Norway shows,… Read More »Parts of Greenland may be on the verge of tipping: new early-warning signals detected
Of the over 400 climate scenarios assessed in the 1.5°C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), only around 50 scenarios avoid significantly overshooting 1.5°C. Of those only around 20 make realistic assumptions… Read More »Few realistic scenarios left to limit global warming to 1.5°C
Nick Breeze interviews professor John Schellnhuber, who set up the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in 1991 to study climate. Nick Breeze (NB): Thinking back to the beginning of the Potsdam Institute, and where… Read More »Schellnhuber: ‘It’s nonlinearity – stupid!’
