Overview
- Germany’s meteorological and physical societies issued a joint Klimaaufruf at the Extremwetterkongress, stating that a rise of about three degrees by around 2050 cannot be excluded and circulating the paper to all federal and state policymakers.
- The brief cites records in 2023 and 2024 that exceeded roughly 1.5°C above pre‑industrial levels, unprecedented sea surface and ocean‑heat content, and about a 60% increase in annual CO₂ emissions since 1990.
- Prominent researchers dispute the strength of the acceleration claim, with the DWD’s Tobias Fuchs calling 2050 worst‑case figures too weakly supported for external communication and Bjorn Stevens saying there is no consensus that warming has accelerated.
- Leipzig’s Karsten Haustein argues that surpassing three degrees by 2050 would require warming above 0.5°C per decade versus today’s ~0.3°C, while others warn that a three‑degree world would overwhelm adaptation and render some regions uninhabitable.
- The appeal frames the scenario as a risk rather than a forecast and demands immediate emissions cuts and robust adaptation, with German cost estimates ranging up to €900 billion by 2050 and other assessments approaching €1 trillion.