Cluster of Excellence CLICCS

Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society" (CLICCS)
category	Research network
Participating institutions	University of Hamburg, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Helmholtz Center Geesthacht, German Climate Computing Center and other partners
Location	Hamburg
Type of research	Basic research
subjects	Natural sciences, social sciences
Speaker	Detlef Stammer, Anita Engels and Jochem Marotzke (both deputy)
Homepage	www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de

Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS) is a cluster of excellence at the University of Hamburg (UHH) in which research is carried out together with large partner institutions. Since January 2019, the cluster has been funded by the federal government and the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the excellence strategy of the federal and state governments . CLICCS is a central research project at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of the University of Hamburg and is coordinated there.

The overarching research question is: Which climate futures are possible and which are plausible? The cluster aims to understand climate changes, including natural climate changes, extreme events and unexpected effects. The project spans a wide range of topics, from basic research on the dynamics of the climate system and social dynamics to the transdisciplinary investigation of the interactions between humans and the environment.

Research areas

Research at CLICCS is divided into three areas that are closely interlinked.

A - Climate sensitivity and variability in the climate system

B - Climate-related dynamics of social systems

C - Sustainable adaptation scenarios

Research area A provides the scientific basis for understanding the dynamics of the climate system. Spatial and temporal fluctuations, climate extremes, and current and future climate change play a role in particular.

Area B examines dynamics in social systems that are related to the climate and builds on the fundamentals from A. He explores social possibilities and limits and gives suggestions for sustainable adaptation scenarios. It is investigated which social prerequisites are necessary for permanent decarbonization.

Research area C focuses on the dynamics between humans and the environment at the regional level - where climate change is visible to the individual and local actors can implement sustainable adaptation. With the results of CLICCS research, adaptation scenarios are newly developed and evaluated.

The High-performance Computing and Data-Intensive Science (HPC) division develops its own software for climate models and solutions for handling large amounts of data.

structure

The CLICCS spokesman is Detlef Stammer, Director of the CEN at the University of Hamburg. He is represented by Anita Engels from the Center for Sustainable Society Research (CSS, Universität Hamburg ) and Jochem Marotzke from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology . A total of around 220 people from different disciplines are involved in the project. CLICCS is the successor cluster to the CliSAP Cluster of Excellence . This was funded by the DFG for ten years from 2007 and also acquired by the University of Hamburg and coordinated at CEN.