News

Wie Geo-Engineering auf Klima-Abkommen wirkt, untersucht Michael Finus

Um den Klimawandel zu bremsen, sollen nicht nur emissionsreduzierende Maßnahmen helfen. Es gibt Überlegungen, technologische Eingriffe vorzunehmen. Sogenannte Geo-Engineering-Methoden umfassen zum Beispiel den Einsatz chemischer Substanzen in der Stratosphäre, um die Sonneneinstrahlung zu verringern. In wie weit sich schon eine derartige Androhung – gewissermaßen als Druckmittel – auswirken könnte, damit Staaten Klimaabkommen ernst nehmen und umsetzen, untersucht Michael Finus, Wissenschaftler für Klima und Umweltökonomie

The dark side of life: new method developed to identify soil organisms

A large number of soil animals are smaller than one millimetre and are therefore difficult to study scientifically. Biologists from the University of Graz have now developed a method to determine both the shape and the DNA of the organisms. The results have been published in the journal Geoderma.

ACRP - 18. Call: Jetzt klimarelevante Forschung für Österreich einreichen

Das Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) fördert orientierte Grundlagenforschung zu Klimawandel, Anpassung, Minderung und Transformation. Reichen Sie bis 15.04.2026 Ihre Projektidee ein.

2. Österreichischer Hitzeaktionstag (“Austrian Heat Action Day”)

On 9 June 2026, the 2nd Austrian Heat Action Day will take place. The aim of the Heat Action Day is to further strengthen heat protection measures and to sustainably raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on human health.

Setback: Austria's greenhouse gas emissions rise in 2025

Climate protection is currently facing an uphill battle. The United Nations have recently been unable to agree on a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels, even though global warming continues to accelerate. Also Austria still does not have a national climate law with a clear target path for reducing emissions. This is evidently taking its toll: Austria’s greenhouse gas emissions rose again in 2025 for the first time in years, by around two and a half percent, according to calculations by researchers at the University of Graz. In addition to overly cautious climate action measures, this is due to somewhat colder winter months compared to 2024, which are driving up natural gas consumption.

Fair distribution: Researchers determine just greenhouse gas budgets for all EU regions

Ten years ago, on 12 December 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was signed at the UN Climate Conference. In order to limit global warming to well below two degrees, only a certain amount of CO2 may be emitted worldwide. While the focus was originally on national emission targets, more than 200 subnational regions and almost 300 cities have now adopted their own targets. But how many emissions are they fairly entitled to? Researchers at the University of Graz have now developed transparent criteria for fair distribution at the subnational level for the first time and determined corresponding greenhouse gas budgets for all European regions. The paper was published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Influential: Rupert Baumgartner and Holger Hoff among the highly cited researchers

The number of publications in scientific journals is considered to be a measure of a researcher's scientific achievement. How often these works are cited by colleagues provides information about the relevance of the publications. Sustainability researcher Rupert Baumgartner and transdisciplinarity expert Holger Hoff from the University of Graz are among the top 1 per cent of the most cited scientists in their fields of research.

Nitrogen as the key: the overestimated effect of CO2 as a plant fertiliser

High levels of atmospheric CO2 can intensify climate change. Having said that, high CO2 also stimulates plant growth which decreases climate change. But only if, among other things, nitrogen is present in sufficient quantities. The actual amount of nitrogen has only recently been reassessed. The “fertilising effect” of CO2 has been significantly overestimated, as a brand-new study involving the University of Graz now shows.

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Reaching climate targets: analytical models must include all stakeholders

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Reiz-Thema

Die Erde heizt sich auf. Gleichzeitig aber wächst die Zahl derer, die nichts mehr davon hören wollen. Was könnte sie umstimmen? Hermine Mitter…

Green Academia Award for Earth Sciences, Business Administration and History

A high number of publications in prestigious research journals in combination with climate-friendly behaviour when it comes to international business…

Climate change unabated: Researchers predict global warming of almost 1.5 degrees for 2025

Summer is over. Despite a partly quite cool July, the last three months were very warm overall in Austria, with over 30 hot days, not to mention the…

Hot Earth: Annual report on global climate documents new records

The international annual report on the State of the Climate, published in mid-August, confirms new climate records for 2024. Despite the natural…

Sehnsuchtsorte am Meer: römische Hafenstädte als Tor zur Welt

Schiffe legen an. Möwen kreischen. Am Ufer herrscht lautes Treiben. Hafenstädte stillen viele Sehnsüchte. Das war schon so in der römischen Antike –…