News

Five years ago, on December 12, 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was signed - a milestone in global climate policy. 195 countries agreed to limit global warming - if possible to well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era. But where are we today? Are we on the right track? This is what our experts have to say.

A new report shows the global link between climate change and health. What doctors are now recommending to politicians.

Biden’s presidency provides a real opportunity for national and global climate policies, according to Reimund Schwarze from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.

If we want to meet the climate targets, the city of the future must become much more efficient. Buildings will then have to produce energy themselves – and solar facades harbor vast potential for this.

Nowadays, whenever a European windstorm sweeps across Germany, many people wonder whether climate change is to blame. The new storm monitor website now provides answers to this and other questions. In this interview, Oliver Krüger explains what other information the storm monitor offers and who he expects will use it.

This summer, many people are not going to the beaches of southern Europe, but to northern Germany. Insa Meinke works where the others go on vacation. She heads the North German Coastal and Climate Office at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and researches how climate change is affecting the region in particular.

Rivers that swell into raging torrents, flooding as far as the eye can see, and hillsides that come sliding down, carrying houses with them – time and again, extremely heavy rains devastate entire regions. And due to climate change, they will continue to storm into our lives with greater frequency.

For many people who suffer from an allergy, climate change makes life even more difficult. Take pollen allergy, for example: the season starts much earlier because of the mild winters, the pollen count is usually higher - and lasts longer. Even extreme weather conditions can lead to severe allergies, for example for those suffering from asthma.

Two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water. Oceans play an important role to us humans - they are food sources, heat stores, trade routes and one of the most important stores of carbon dioxide (CO₂). In particular, seagrass meadows along the coasts absorb a lot of CO₂, but this ecosystem is sensitive to the effects of climate change and could lose much of its storage function.