Off to a great start – 80 researchers attend the CLICCS kick-off!

2 April 2019, by Ute Kreis

Photo: UHH/CEN/T.Wasilewski

Last Thursday, veteran researchers, young investigators, infrastructure research experts and office staff from the new Cluster of Excellence for climate research CLICCS gathered in Universität Hamburg’s main building for the official kick-off event.

Following extensive organizational planning work over the past several weeks, last Thursday the teams for the subprojects presented their concrete research plans. “Meteorology, the social sciences, climate modeling, and peace research – CLICCS is an interdisciplinary project that brings together natural sciences and social sciences-based climate research,” says CLICCS Speaker Prof. Detlef Stammer. “Accordingly, communication and close collaboration are vital from the outset.”

The Cluster’s goal is to identify future climate scenarios that are not only possible from a physical and societal standpoint, but also plausible. Key questions include: How will climate change affect our natural resources, and which problems and extremes will we face? How feasible is a comprehensive decarbonization of the economy? Which societal processes are conducive to climate-responsible behavior, and which ones hinder it? Lastly, how does such behavior affect the climate – and above all, how quickly?

“In principle, different scenarios are possible, but not all are plausible,” says sociologist and CLICCS Co-Speaker Prof. Anita Engels. Another aspect: how companies and different actors respond to the ongoing changes, and which concrete scenarios would result from this. “The more precisely we understand the mechanisms that influence the future and thus plausibility, the better we can provide our knowledge for decision-makers.”

The Cluster of Excellence “CLIMATE, CLIMATIC CHANGE, AND SOCIETY (CLICCS)” has received initial funding of 38 million euros (through 2025) from the German Research Foundation (DFG). At the time of its launch, 110 researchers had signed on; over the next several years, ca. 80 additional colleagues will join them on a limited-term basis.