People For Earth

- Gunnar Luderer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact

Limiting Global Warming to well-below 2°C or 1.5°C - as agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement - requires achieving global climate neutrality around mid-century. This target can only be achieved with a profound transformation of global energy systems. Challenges are faced in particular in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as heavy industry or long-distance heavy-duty transportation. On the other hand, rapid technological changes and cost reductions in renewable present huge opportunities. The colloquium talk will present latest insights from global integrated energy-economy-climate analysis on pathways towards a climate neutral future. It will further highlight implied policy and innovation priorities for making the energy transformation a success.

Gunnar Luderer leads the Energy Systems Group at PIK, is the Lead Scientist for the REMIND Integrated Energy Economy Climate Model, and serves as Deputy Chair of Research Department 3 - Transformation Pathways.  He is also Professor of Global Energy Systems Analysis at the Technical University of Berlin.  He was a lead author of the 2013 and 2018 UNEP Emissions Gap Reports and a contributing author to the Fifth Assessment Report, the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources  as well as the Special Report on Warming of 1.5°C of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He studied Physics, Economics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Heidelberg and Oregon State University. He performed his doctoral studies at the MPI for Chemistry in Mainz. Gunnar Luderer has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and was recognized as one of the World's most Highly Cited Researchers  by the Web of Science Group in 2019 and 2020.