09.07.2020 | Press release of the Helmholtz Climate Initiative

Facts, Research, Expertise:

Helmholtz Climate Initiative starts new website

The Helmholtz Climate Initiative has intensively reworked its website. Starting immediately, the Initiative now offers articles, background knowledge, fact sheets, and much more on the current state of climate research at www.helmholtz-klima.de. In a new expert inquiry, the Initiative connects with Helmholtz climate scientists. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) is involved in Cluster I "Net Zero 2050" (Mitigation) as well as Cluster II "Adaptation to Extreme Events".

Screenshot Helmholtz Klima Initiative breit engl

Berlin, July 9, 2020 – Starting today, the Helmholtz Climate Initiative presents itself from a new perspective. The Initiative’s website www.helmholtz-klima.de has been intensely reworked and expanded with many new features. For example, it now offers an expert directory that visitors can use to request the expertise of climate scientists in the Helmholtz Association. A new climate calendar shows upcoming climate-related dates. A media library offers a comprehensive selection of materials such as fact sheets, visuals, photos and videos. This offers current, scientifically validated climate knowledge to the interested public and media creators as well as to decision makers in politics and business. The site is now more user-friendly thanks to a new streamlined design.

Up-to-date articles on the new website reveal the current state of scientific research on climate-related topics such as droughts, forest decline or changing disease profiles. To start, Munich physician Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann and geographer Daniela Bayr show how they are jointly researching the effects of climate change on our health, such as how allergies are changing due to increased global warming and how affected individuals can react.

In the Helmholtz Climate Initiative, since July 2019 scientists from 15 Helmholtz centers work as an interdisciplinary team to find systemic solutions to one of the greatest social problems of our time: climate change. The Initiative consists of 13 pilot projects assigned to two scientific areas of focus: Cluster I, “Net Zero 2050” (Mitigation), is working on a pilot roadmap that compiles the most promising contributions from the scientific community towards making Germany CO2-neutral by 2050. Cluster II “Adapting to Extreme Events” (Adaptation), is investigating possible ways of adapting to climate-related changes in areas of life such as health, agriculture, energy supply and traffic.

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) is involved in Cluster I and II. GERICS coordinates Cluster I.

HZG and GERICS are involved in the following work packages:

Cluster I

P1 // Roadmap and scenarios

GERICS brings together the main results of the projects and case studies carried out in Cluster I. In an interactive web atlas the CO2 storage potentials of different technologies and measures are presented throughout Germany and further initiatives in the field of CO2 neutrality are pointed out. In addition, a pilot roadmap summarizes the most promising contributions from the scientific community for a CO2-neutral Germany by the middle of the century.
Furthermore, the HZG/GERICS is in charge of the transdisciplinary case study I "Climate Neutral City Karlsruhe" and coordinates the dialogues with central actors from politics, administration, economy and civil society.

P2 // Approaches for a circular carbon use

The Institute of Polymer Research investigates process chains for material recycling, e.g. to synthetic fuels, carbon dioxide separated from the atmosphere or point sources together with hydrogen produced from renewable energies. These processes are characterized by a large number of gaseous material flows. Membrane processes for gas separation are very well suited for separating them into their individual components, purifying products and recycling starting materials. The application of the HZG gas separation membrane portfolio is evaluated with process simulation tools and new process combinations are developed.

P3 // Potential and integration of underground storage solutions

The Institute of Materials Research examines the possibilities and potential for storing renewable energies in the form of hydrogen as an energy carrier in exchange for conventional energy carriers based on carbon and hydrocarbons from fossil sources. Hydrogen is particularly suitable for this purpose because it is versatile in many applications, can be stored in large quantities, is non-toxic or environmentally harmful, and the reaction with oxygen in a fuel cell produces only water.

In addition, the possibilities for local storage of renewable (green) hydrogen are also being considered and investigated.

P4 // Storage solutions in nature

The land surface is an important natural carbon store. Vegetation extracts CO2 from the atmosphere and can bind it in forests and soils over long periods of time. In agriculture and forestry, appropriate land use measures can help to make better use of this storage potential.

GERICS is working on the development of an app that helps to quantify these effects also under different future climatic conditions. For example, the application will enable agricultural bodies to scientifically assess the effects of their management decisions on the future carbon balance, but also on yields.

Cluster II

Climate Communication

Here you can find the media library with graphics, videos, factsheets and photos as well as the media libraries of the participating reseach centers.

The specially created Communication Cluster is not only intended as a forum for presenting the findings of the project. The aim is also to summarize the current state of research on climate-related topics and to initiate an active dialog with interested persons. To achieve this goal, the Helmholtz Climate Initiative is networking with other climate research projects within the Helmholtz Association as well as with numerous other partners. For example, fact sheets, articles and background papers are developed together with the German coordination center of the IPCC global climate council, the German Climate Consortium and klimafakten.de.

The Helmholtz Association is investing 12 million euros from its Initiative and Networking Fund to the Helmholtz Climate Initiative.

A steering committee is responsible for the general direction of the Initiative and monitors its progress. It consists of the Helmholtz President Otmar D. Wiestler as well as members of the Executive Board of all six research fields of the Helmholtz Association. The overall coordinator of the Initiative is Georg Teutsch, scientific director of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. He also heads the Cluster Adaptation. The scientific director of the Mitigation Cluster is GERICS Director Daniela Jacob.

Further details on the individual pilot projects and areas of focus of the Helmholtz Climate Initiative can be found at: www.helmholtz-klima.de

Starting now, journalists can register here for the new press directory.

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Contact

Head of Communications

Roland Koch

The Helmholtz Climate Initiative

E-mail contact

Coordination

Bettina Steuri

Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS)

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