climate
‘The EU needs to be better prepared for new and emerging plant pests’
Plant pests can have severe consequences for the economy, environment and food security, as was seen with a bacterial pathogen that has already killed millions of olive tress across Southern Europe. Experts Sarah Hackfort and Chiel Scholten (Technolopis Group, Germany and The Netherlands) wrote a study for the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Prof. Juan Picos about solutions against wildfires
How can we make the European landscape more resilient to wildfires? Experts are testing out different prevention strategies on different areas through predictive models and computer simulations. One of them is Prof. Juan Picos from the University of Vigo (Spain), co-coordinator of the cross-border EU-funded FIREPOCTEP+ project. He will speak at the workshop ‘Nature-based solutions ...
Solutions to make Europe more resilient to raging wildfires
Fuelled by climate change and a shift in land-use practices, wildfires are increasing in number and intensity across Europe. In fact, last year was the worst year for wildfires in Europe in 20 years, according to an EUMETSAT report. Its authors contribute the intensity of the fires to factors like increasingly dry vegetation, low soil ...
Towards a planetary boundary framework
In 2009, a team, led by the climate scientist Prof Johan Rockström, identified nine natural processes that regulate Earth’s biosphere and keep it stable. These include climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion and aerosol loading. For each of these processes the team defined the ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Kati Koponen on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Kati Koponen is senior scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She’s among the authors of a report commissioned by the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy on the role of Direct Air Capture (DAC). What are the major carbon dioxide capture technologies currently in use worldwide – and what are their ...
Carbon dioxide removal technologies: can they help us fight climate change?
The final document of the last United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP30, acknowledges that the world is approaching an overshoot – that is, exceeding the 1.5 °C global warming threshold. Reducing future emission will be essential, but no longer sufficient: we will also need to actively remove the carbon dioxide (CO2) ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with Sabine Fuss on removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Sabine Fuss is an economist and head of research department at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Research Impact. To start, there are multiple ways to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, and several terms are often used: carbon dioxide removal (CDR), carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), direct air capture (DAC), bioenergy combined with ...
A scientist’s opinion: interview with geophysicist and glaciologist Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen on ice core research
Similar to tree rings, ice cores contain distinct layers representing each year's snowfall. These annual layers act as a natural archive, not just of Earth's past climate, but also of the history of humanity. Jørgen Peder Steffensen, Professor of ice-core-related research at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the ...