Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Escalating human pressure has transformed the Southeastern Amazon into a carbon source, with significant implications for global climate and regional precipitation patterns. Urgent measures are required to mitigate this trend and safeguard the Amazon’s ecological and climatic functions.The Amazon rainforest could approach a tipping point, which could lead to a large-scale collapse with serious implications for the global climate system. A new Nature study by an international research team including scientists from the…

A new report by the Food System Economics Commission highlights that transforming global food systems could yield socio-economic benefits of 5 to 10 trillion USD annually, surpassing the costs of such changes. It emphasizes the urgent need for policy overhaul in food systems, which currently cause more harm than good, and can potentially save millions of lives and mitigate climate impacts.A new global policy report from the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC), authored by leading economists and scientists, reveals…

The concept of planetary commons is crucial for the future of civilization and Earth’s stability. Researchers propose that Earth system functions transcending national boundaries, such as the Amazon rainforest and Greenland ice sheets, should be governed collectively as planetary commons. This nearly two-year research by 22 international experts suggests expanding the global commons concept to include critical biophysical systems. The goal is to create effective global governance strategies that transcend national…

New research finds that accounting for the long-term impacts of tropical cyclones increases the global Social Cost of Carbon by over 20%. This elevation is driven by projected damage increases in major economies due to global warming. The study emphasizes that current estimates undervalue the real costs of climate change by overlooking these prolonged economic effects.Extreme events like tropical cyclones have immediate impacts, but also long-term implications for societies. A new study published in the journal Nature…