Burger

Consistent technology risk profiles for transitioning to sustainable low carbon emission scenarios (RiskTransScens)

Anthropogenic climate change is already affecting all regions of the world, and with every bit of further warming, climate extremes will become more intense and frequent. Many technologies that are discussed and used to limit climate change and its consequences are themselves affected by climate change, extreme weather and critical threshold value exceedance. Technologies for climate protection, adaptation and sustainable development will in turn influence the transformation to sustainability on different spatial, temporal and functional levels.
The working group deals with possibilities and new methods to assess the impact of these technologies in terms of their economic, behavioral and societal aspects and their interactions. The working group will focus on bringing together research on the effects of climate change and risk and technology assessment. We intend to examine the physical and social risks associated with technologies, including transitional risks, and their distributional effects. This should enable the comparison of different risks or risk categories and stimulate and enrich the development of scenarios for a sustainable transformation.

The working group will deal with the following research questions, among others:

  • How can sustainability goals and a far-reaching implementation of technologies be integrated into the development of climate scenarios and how can the risks associated with the scenarios be assessed coherently?
  • What are socially acceptable criteria for designing policies for technology-based solutions to achieve our sustainable development and climate goals?
  • How are extreme events shaping the perceived impacts of global warming and the deployment of technology-based solutions?
  • What are the key risk categories and metrics that should be considered when comparing risks associated with climate change and technologies that can be used at different scales and across sectors?

The RiskTranScens working group will organize meetings and workshops over the next two years and work closely with global research networks such as the Knowledge Action Network on Emergent Risks and Extreme Events (Risk KAN, and the Global Carbon Project (GCP)) as well as the BMBF funding lines CDRmare and CDRterra.

Working Group Spokesperson

Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann

University of Hamburg, Research Unit for Sustainability and Climate Risks — Climate Statistics — Climate Extremes —

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Dr. Pia-Johanna Schweizer

Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) – Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam

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Working Group Members