CLICCS Cluster of Excellence

CLIMATE, CLIMATIC CHANGE, AND SOCIETY (CLICCS) is a Cluster of Excellence located at and coordinated by The Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) at the University of Hamburg. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), CLICCS is a key research project, that investigates how the climate changes and how society changes with it, thereby feeding back on climate. Understanding these changes, including how societies adapt, will enable us to assess with far greater confidence than before the range of imaginable climate futures. 

The program aims to understand climate changes, taking into account internal variability, extreme events, and unexpected side effects, addressing the natural and social spheres as well as their interactions. Thus CLICCS’ overarching research question is: Which climate futures are possible and which are plausible?

CLICCS will use observations and models of the natural, coupled human–environment, and social systems to understand the processes governing these systems, and to formulate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The scientific objectives will be achieved through three intertwined research themes:

A – provides the natural basis for understanding climate system dynamics, including climate variability and extremes, the climate change already unfolding, and the climate change expected for the future.

B – investigates the climate-related dynamics of social systems and provides the social science foundation for the construction of plausible climate scenarios, with a specific emphasis on deep decarbonization.

C – focuses on coupled human–environment dynamics on a regional level, where climate change becomes visible and where sustainable adaptation can be realized by local actors.