Prof. Dr. Julia Pongratz | The anthropogenic carbon budget: has the emissions tipping point been reached?

Personal details

Julia Pongratz is a German climate researcher and holds the chair of Geography and land use systems at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. She also conducts research at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and is involved in IPCC reports. A major focus of Prof. Pongratz's work is the carbon cycle and the mutual influence of humans, vegetation and climate, as well as the impact of land use changes on climate. She investigates, among other things, the climate-protecting potential of measures such as afforestation.

Her doctoral thesis was honored with the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society and the Vladimir Peter Köppen Prize of the University of Hamburg.

About the presentation

How do you quantify emissions in the first place? Where do they go (natural decrease in land ecosystems and in the ocean)? Who emitted how much, who is to blame and should clean up? What was the trajectory from the early Holocene through crisis-ridden history and are peak emissions now permanently overcome by the Corona crisis? How do we stay on the path that will still allow us to reach the 2 degree goal? What are the benefits of negative emission technologies, especially in rural areas? Are measures such as afforestation, biomass plantations and accelerated weathering the panacea or do they also harbor risks?