IMPETUS4CHANGE (I4C) will make significant scientific advances that will enhance our collective ability to act on and adapt to near-term climate change. The overarching objective of I4C is to improve the quality, accessibility and usability of near-term climate information and services at local to regional scales – where impacts are most keenly felt and on-the-ground adaptation is implemented – to strengthen and support end-user adaptation planning and action.
Several specific objectives work towards this overarching goal:
1) Improve understanding and flow of climate information through knowledge networks;
2) Address persistent shortcomings to deliver seasonal to decadal predictions of improved quality;
3) Develop novel methods to downscale predictions to local scales;
4) Improve assessments of hazards and translate this into usable information for local risk assessments;
5) Make advances towards the goal of end-to-end seamless climate services;
6) Through transdisciplinary co-production approaches develop fit-for-purpose "Adaptation support packs" at municipal scales through our so-called urban Demonstrators;
7) Ensure high impact and visibility through robust and targeted communication and engagement;
8) Commit to Open Science through development of open access tools and exploitation of data/model outputs via relevant platforms thereby ensuring improved accessibility and usability of climate knowledge.
The I4C approach is to address and improve the full value chain of near-term predictions from global climate to local impacts. Many of our fundamental science activities in modeling, downscaling, and tailoring near-term climate are novel and experimental. Additionally, the inclusion of an expert team of social scientists will allow a more rigorous co-production process as the project transforms data to information, information to knowledge and knowledge to action.
The team of Prof. Dr. Astrid Kause at the Leuphana University will predominantly contribute to understanding the flow of climate information (objective 1), and co-developing climate services for urban demonstrators throughout Europe (objective 6).
EU program acronym and subprogram area: HORIZON-CL5-2022-D1-02-04
Project funding for Leuphana University: 213.330€.
Contact: Prof. Dr. Astrid Kause, Institute for Sustainability, Education & Psychology (ISEP), E-mail: Astrid.Kause@leuphana.de
Combating climate change requires to rapidly implement effective climate policies on large scales. Public audiences need to both understand as well as support climate policies. We study how Germans perceive the 1.5 degree goal and related climate policies and how their understanding relates to their political orientation, their climate risk perception and their environmental world view. In a study with a large probabilistic German sample from the German GESIS Panel we assess in 2016 and 2022, whether Germans know the 1.5 degree goal, and how well they understand the time references of the 1.5 degree goal, namely that global average temperatures should not rise more than 1.5 degrees since the beginning of industrialization. In qualitative interviews we study German’s knowledge about climate policy goals including the 1.5 degree goal; and what climate change consequences they think are relevant for them. Our research has been funded by Leuphana University (€14.950,- until Juli 2023). We collaborate with the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, University of Potsdam.