19 June 14:30-16:00 CEST

Interactions & Cascades of Climate Tipping Points

Join AIMES, the Earth Commission, Future Earth, and the WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity for a webinar on Interactions & Cascades of Climate Tipping Points as part of a series that aims to advance the knowledge about tipping points, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. Recent research assessed that many interactions between climate tipping elements are of destabilizing nature, leading to the possibility of climate domino effects. Nico and Anna will review the current state of literature on tipping point interactions and discuss risks for cascading transitions under current global warming trajectories.

Presentations

  • Nico Wunderling (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Center for Critical Computational Studies, Frankfurt am Main)
  • Anna von der Heydt (Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University)
  • Q&A/ Discussion 

Moderated by Viktor Brovkin (Max Planck Institute)

The recording will be available below:

Back to series overview.

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Speakers

Nico Wunderling
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Center for Critical Computational Studies

Nico Wunderling is a PostDoctoral Researcher in the FutureLab on Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Center for Critical Computational Studies (C³S) at the Goethe University Frankfurt. He is also a guest researcher at the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. Using methods from nonlinear dynamics, complex systems and Earth System modeling of intermediate complexity, Nico’s research focuses on climate tipping elements, their interactions as well as risk assessments for tipping events and cascading transitions under current global warming trajectories. .

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Anna von der Heydt
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University

Anna von der Heydt is Associate Professor at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her work focuses on (palaeo-)climate phenomena and transition behavior in climate using a hierarchy of climate models and stochastic dynamical systems approaches. Anna uses state-of-the-art (high resolution) climate models to quantify the state-dependent climate response to forcing. Amongst other, Anna currently works on a Dutch Science foundation funded project ‘Interacting climate tipping elements: When does tipping cause tipping?’ and on the European Union funded project on Quantifying Climate Tipping Points and Their Impacts (ClimTip).

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All you need to know

This event is part of a series of online discussions aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. It supports efforts to increase consistency in treatment of tipping elements in the scientific community, develop a research agenda, and design joint experiments and ideas for a Tipping Element Model Intercomparison Project (TipMip).

This discussion series is a joint activity of the Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) global research project of Future Earth, the Earth Commission Working Group 1 Earth and Human Systems Intercomparison Modelling Project (EHSMIP) under the Global Commons Alliance and the Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity of World Climate Research Program (WCRP).

Organized by

Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES)

The Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) project is an international network of Earth system scientists and scholars that seek to develop innovative, interdisciplinary ways to understand the complexity of the natural world and its interactions with human activities. AIMES is a global research project of Future Earth.

Earth Commission

The Earth Commission is a major scientific assessment, hosted by Future Earth, to define a safe and just corridor for people and planet. The Commission will inform the creation of science-based targets, the “1.5-degree equivalents”, to help maintain and protect critical global commons – our shared climate, land, biodiversity, freshwater, atmosphere and oceans. The Earth Commission is an international team of leading natural and social scientists and five working groups of additional experts. It forms the scientific cornerstone of the Global Commons Alliance.

Future Earth

Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers, and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet. Future Earth initiates and supports international collaboration between researchers and stakeholders to identify and generate the integrated knowledge needed for successful transformations towards societies that provide good and fair lives for all within a stable and resilient Earth system. Future Earth is the host of the Earth Commission.

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)is an international research institute that advances systems analysis and applies its research methods to identify policy solutions to reduce human footprints, enhance the resilience of natural and socioeconomic systems, and help achieve the sustainable development goals.

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) is advancing the frontier of integrated research for global sustainability, and for a safe and just climate future. A member of the Leibniz Association, the institute is based in Potsdam, Brandenburg and connected with the global scientific community. Drawing on excellent research, PIK provides relevant scientific advice for policy decision-making. The institute’s international staff of about 400 is led by a committed interdisciplinary team of Directors.

University of Exeter, Global Systems Institute

The Global Systems Institute (GSI) is thought-leading in understanding global changes, solving global challenges and helping create a flourishing future world together, through transformative research, education and impact. GSI's aim is to work with others to secure a flourishing future for humanity as an integral part of a life-sustaining Earth system. GSI's aim to be a ‘go to’ place for global change researchers from around the world, bringing them together with industry, policymakers, students and other stakeholders to tackle shared problems, and acting as a catalyst that enables translation of this research into applications that deliver tangible and sustainable social and ecological benefit.

WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity.

The Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity is an exploration of the routes to “safe landing” spaces for human and natural systems. It will explore future pathways that avoid dangerous climate change while at the same time contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those of climate action, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, and healthy ecosystems above and below water. The relevant time scale is multi-decadal to millennial.

World Climate Research Programme

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency or scientific discipline. Through international science coordination and partnerships, WCRP contributes to advancing our understanding of the multi-scale dynamic interactions between natural and social systems that affect climate.