Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, German: Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung) is a German government-funded research institute addressing crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts, and sustainable development. Ranked among the top environmental think tanks worldwide, it is one of the leading research institutions and part of a global network of scientific and academic institutions working on questions of global environmental change. It is a member of the Leibniz Association, whose institutions perform research on subjects of high relevance to society. Heads of the institute are Ottmar Edenhofer, Johan Rockström and Bettina Hörstrup.

History PIK was founded in 1992 by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who became the institute's first director. In 2018 he was succeeded by two joint directors—the climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer, and Earth scientist Johan Rockström, formerly director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. About 400 people work at the institute that is located on Potsdam's historic Telegrafenberg. Researchers from the natural and social sciences analyze the Earth system, assess climate risks and develop policies and solution pathways towards a manageable climate future.

Organization The Potsdam Institute is part of the Leibniz Association. Its board consists of three directors, Ottmar Edenhofer, Johan Rockström and Bettina Hörstrup, who is the administrative director. PIK has four research departments (RDs) and seven Future Labs.

Research Departments

Earth System Analysis (RD 1) Research Department 1 (RD1) provides the Earth system science foundation of PIK. It focuses on the understanding and modelling of the physical and biogeochemical processes that govern the Earth system (i.e. Oceans, Atmosphere and Biosphere) and its response to human interference. RD1 research is guided by four major themes that PIK helped to establish:

Tipping points in the climate system: Non-linear Earth system processes and threshold behavior. Planetary boundaries: Definition, quantification and operationalization of planetary boundaries and their interactions. Earth trajectories: Dynamics and modes of operation of the Earth system (for example circulation changes, feedback systems) under natural and human forcing, and the resulting long- and short-term trajectories. Extreme events: Development of an understanding of the dynamical mechanisms and changing statistics of extreme weather events on a warming Earth.

Climate Resilience (RD 2) RD2 strives to improve the understanding of climate resilience, i.e. resilience of social and ecological systems to climate change, in various sectors and across multiple spatial scales. As a general framing for RD2 research, resilience entails aspects of persistence—the capacity of systems to resist and absorb short-term shocks, yet remain within critical thresholds; adaptability—the capacity to recover, adjust to changing external drivers, and thereby remain on the current trajectory; and transformability—the capacity to cross thresholds, if necessary, into new, robust long-term development trajectories.

Climate change impacts and their socio-economic consequences related to land use, agriculture, forests, hydrological systems, human health and well-being, and urban areas; Adaptive capacity of societies and ecosystems across scales at different levels of global warming; Synergies between climate change adaptation and mitigation to improve climate resilience and achieve sustainable human development.

Transformation Pathways (RD 3)

Research Department 3 (RD3) aims to provide an integrated perspective on climate change mitigation and climate change impact pathways to inform societies' choices. Climate protection may have costs, but unabated climate change can have strong adverse effects on economic development; loss of biodiversity is amplified by climate change, but could also be increased by certain mitigation strategies relying on the use of land; climate protection might create winners and losers, but climate change itself will have strong distributional impacts and affect low income groups disproportionately.

Development of integrated climate protection and climate impact pathways. Evaluation of mitigation strategies and remaining impacts with regard to socio-economic development, distributional effects and planetary integrity. Societal impacts of climate change. Assessment of climate change as a potential driver of migration, displacement, and conflict. Sustainable land use. Evaluation of land-use transformation pathways exploiting mitigation potential while at the same time ensuring biosphere integrity. Sustainable energy use. Exploration of transformation pathways towards sustainable and carbon-neutral energy use taking into account their resource use and environmental footprint. Policy strategies for climate protection pathways. Analysis of regulatory and economic climate policy instruments with regard to their efficiency and distributional implications.

Complexity Science (RD 4) This RD is devoted to Machine Learning, Nonlinear Methods and decision strategies. Of particular focus are:

Climate phenomena and extremes: Prediction and modelling with complex networks, nonlinear data analysis, statistical physics, and machine learning. Abrupt climate transitions: Detection and prediction with advanced time series analysis, numerical modelling, and analytical concepts. Socio-economic and infrastructure networks: Understanding dynamics through new modelling and stability concepts. Climate decisions: Uncovering principles and modelling interactions using econometrics, game theory, and machine learning.

Future Labs Six of the FutureLabs are time-limited and will be evaluated after five years. One permanent FutureLab has been established that aims to strengthen the institute's efforts in capacity building activities as well as its social metabolism research endeavors.

FutureLab on Social Metabolism & Impacts (Permanent Future Lab) Human societies depend on a continuous throughput of materials and energy for their reproduction. Raw materials must be extracted from the environment, transformed into goods and services (e.g. food, housing and mobility) and eventually all materials are released back to the environment as emissions and waste. Free energy and socially organized human labor are required to keep this social metabolism going.

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