Zukunft im Turm

The consequences of climate change

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

8 October 2013

Ringturm

What impact will climate change have? What changes will we need to adapt to? Can climate change still be averted? Climate researcher Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber tried to answer these questions as part of the Zukunft im Turm series.

The discussion looked at forecasts of the impact of climate change on Europe, as well as the question of whether the goal of halving global CO2 emissions is realistic. There was also a focus on Germany’s Energiewende (“energy transition”), the aim of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial levels (the two degree target) and the media’s impact on the climate change debate.

On the picture from left to right: Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Dr. Alexandra Föderl-Schmid (editor in chief “Der Standard”) and Dr. Günter Geyer (Chairman of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein). © Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein/APA-Fotoservice/Preiss
On the picture from left to right: Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Dr. Alexandra Föderl-Schmid (editor in chief “Der Standard”) and Dr. Günter Geyer (Chairman of the Managing Board of Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein). © Wiener Städtische Versicherungsverein/APA-Fotoservice/Preiss

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is the Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He has a PhD in physics and has been looking into the effects of climate change since the early 1990s. Schellnhuber is the Chairman of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).