The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a synthesis report summarizing the reports of recent years. Markku Rummukainen, Sweden's contact person for the IPCC and also Professor of Climatology at the Center for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University and a member of MERGE, answers five question about the new report. What does the new synthesis report say?

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/markku-rummukainen-new-ipcc-report-near-term-action-crucial - 2025-08-25

Not all air pollution are created by humans. As the global average temperature rises, harmful emissions from plants increase and more desert dust is dispersed in the atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg ande MERGE-members, among others, warn that this leads to increased health risks. Climate change does not only mean that the global average temperature is rising by several deg

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/deteriorating-air-quality-warmer-world - 2025-08-25

Photo: Mattias Hallquist Dense urban areas amplify the effects of higher temperatures, due to the phenomenon of heat islands in cities. Large investments in the electricity network will be necessary to cool us down during heatwaves and keep us warm during cold snaps, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Lund University. The study presents a modelling platfo

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/cities-will-need-more-resilient-electricity-networks-cope-extreme-weather - 2025-08-25

Luisa Ickes with a colleague on the first days of the expedition. As the ice-breaker Odin set sail on the 7th of May, MERGE-researchers Luisa Ickes, Lovisa Nilsson and Nicolas Faure were on it! The purpose of the expedition is to get to the Arctic Ocean at the beginning of the melting season. The researchers within ARTofMELT (Atmospheric rivers and the onset of sea ice melt) want to find out, amon

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/greetings-polar-expedition-artofmelt-2023 - 2025-08-25

Professor Torben R. Christensen has a comment published in the international top science journal Nature. In the comment, he looks back at the scientific work in the field of methane flux research since more than 20 years, and worries about the fact that Arctic methane emissions remain almost as uncertain as they were then, and points out that the research on methane fluxes needs to be extended."Me

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/torben-r-christensen-comments-nature - 2025-08-25

The vegetation in Europe has not always looked like it does today. Just as the ice sheet retreated in northern Europe and the population increased, man began to affect the landscape to a greater extent by deforestation. At first on a small scale to facilitate hunting, for example, and then more systematically to make way for agriculture. A new study shows that one of the consequences was changes i

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/deforestation-changed-climate-europe-during-bronze-age - 2025-08-25

Polar bears followed the expedition in the Arctic. Photo: Julia Asplund Ice sheets, snow and the ocean as far as the eye can see. No shipping vessels or people in sight, and only polar bears for company. The icebreaker Oden sails between Svalbard and Greenland, and this spring, doctoral student Lovisa Nilsson, and a member of MERGE, joined the ship to study the transition from winter to summer in

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/research-trip-arctic-was-followed-polar-bears - 2025-08-25

Kristineberg marine center. Photo: Cheryl Sjöström. In September 13-15, 2023 the ClimBEco summer meeting entitled “Double up and double down: linking the global climate and biodiversity crises to bring about fast, fair and transformative change” was held. My research background is not in marine sciences, nor am I used to living by the sea, yet something about the Kristineberg Center for Marine Res

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/reflections-climbeco-summer-meeting-2023 - 2025-08-25

ClimBEco is a research school funded by the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC, as well as the Faculty of Science in Lund. In ClimBEco 22 PhD-students was accepted for the years 2013-2015 and for the next period 2014-2016 starting in August they are 22. The annual summer meeting will take place at Falsterbo Kursgård 27-28 August. On day one, special focus will be placed on the latest IPCC rep

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/climbeco-graduate-research-school-summer-status - 2025-08-25

All particles that reach the atmosphere cause different chemical reactions. Particles come partly from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires, and partly from pollution and emissions. Aerosol researcher Johan Friberg studies particles at high altitudes. He fears that the global increase in forest fires could have a significant impact on the ozone layer. “I study the air in the

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/increase-forest-fires-may-damage-crucial-ozone-layer - 2025-08-25

Vad är på gång i Sverige och omvärlden inom miljö- och klimatområdet och hur påverkar det myndigheter, företag, intresseorganisationer och forskning? Vilket behov av kunskap finns det och vilka framtidsfrågor behöver adresseras? Det var temat när forskare och koordinatorer från forskningsmiljöerna BECC och MERGE hade möte med miljöernas referensgrupp i Stockholm i oktober. Referensgruppen består a

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/arligt-mote-och-omvarldsspaning-med-merges-och-beccs-referensgrupp - 2025-08-25

On 15-17 May 2024, SMHI, the strategic research areas MERGE and BECC, and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research invite you to the second Swedish Climate Symposium in Norrköping. A symposium for increased scientific understanding of climate change and its environmental and societal consequences. Climate change strongly affects natural systems and humanity. In Sweden, the effects of climate change a

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/now-you-can-submit-your-contribution-swedish-climate-symposium - 2025-08-25

More equitable solutions for climate adaptation and resilience strategies for the most vulnerable are needed, says new climate report. Image: Future Earth Human mobility in climate risk areas is increasing. The loss of mountain glaciers is accelerating. Reforming food systems can contribute to more equitable climate action. These are some of the latest insights from climate science presented at CO

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/ten-new-insights-climate-science - 2025-08-25

MERGE-member Deliang Chen, world leading climate researcher and Professor of Physical Meteorology at the University of Gothenburg, has been elected International Science Council Fellow. It is the highest honor awarded by the ISC to those championing science in and for society. – I am deeply honored to be recognized by the ISC as a global voice for science. It is humbling to stand alongside such a

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/deliang-chen-new-isc-fellow-recognized-promoting-public-impact-science - 2025-08-25

On 15-17 May, the second edition of the Swedish Climate Symposium will take place in Norrköping. The symposium offers is a unique opportunity for scholars and societal actors to seek greater scientific understanding of climate change and its consequences for the environment and society. David Wårlind is part of the steering group for the symposium, and we asked him three questions about why you do

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/three-questions-david-warlind-about-swedish-climate-symposium - 2025-08-25

Solar energy production can potentially be subject to future geopolitical maneuvering: if a country builds a lot of solar farms (e.g. in a subtropical desert), it can potentially harm solar power production in other countries. Photo: Xin Jin In just two weeks, Zhengyao Lu, Researcher in Physical Geography at Lund University and a member of MERGE and BECC, gained 60.000 reads of his article “Gigant

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/60000-views-conversation-two-weeks-whats-secret - 2025-08-25

Lundaforskarna Thomas Pugh och Raimund Muscheler från den naturvetenskapliga fakulteten får ERC Advanced Grant. Foto: Privat/Kenneth Ruona Quaternary geologist Raimund Muscheler and physical geographer Thomas Pugh have been awarded the ERC Advanced Grant by the European Research Council. They will receive EUR 2.5 million each over a five-year period to study historical solar storms and the rate at

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/two-lund-researchers-and-merge-members-receive-prestigious-eu-grant - 2025-08-25

Opening session of Swedish Climate Symposium 2024 After a year of intensive work by many involved, the Swedish Climate Symposium with its close to 400 participants, has come to an end. Now an evaluation of the conference awaits, but the feeling is that most people experienced it as a successful event. To take the pulse during the symposium itself, we did a couple of short interviews with some of t

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/voices-swedish-climate-symposium - 2025-08-25

Sweden is also increasingly affected by unusually intense storms. Here, a flooded playground in the city of Landskrona after the storm "Hans" in August 2023. Have you noticed that when scientists are asked whether or not a particular extreme weather event is due to climate change, they usually respond with something like "It fits the pattern, but we can't say for sure that this particular event is

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/weather-attribution-climate-scientist-wilhelm-may-helps-us-get-grips-concept - 2025-08-25

Photo: Rawpixel A new international study shows that ice loss in the Arctic is leading to increased evaporation from Arctic marginal seas, such as the North Sea, and that the increased atmospheric moisture has clear consequences for precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere. It is well known from research that climate change has contributed to a doubling of temperatures in the Arctic compared to th

https://www.merge.lu.se/article/melting-arctic-sea-ice-affects-precipitation-patterns - 2025-08-25