Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

News 2020

On the ball for 50 years

15 December 2020

In 2020, the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern is celebrating 50 years of climate research. Now a key pillar of Bern’s internationally renowned climate research, the institute had a humble start. Stefan Brönnimann, climatology professor and OCCR member, has made a film to mark this anniversary. It offers a scientific as well as personal retrospective of this eventful period in interdisciplinary research.

Watch the video

“I’ve always had two mainstays in my career”

7 December 2020

Bettina Schaefli joined the University of Bern a year ago as a professor of hydrology. In this interview, the OCCR member talks about the risks of water and electricity shortages, the importance of field research and the interest in her findings.

Climate reconstruction from the archives of societies

10 November 2020

OCCR members Chantal Camenisch and Heli Huhtamaa were part of the editing team of the latest issue of the Past Global Changes Magazine which presents the state of research in the field of historical climatology. Its articles examine different regions of the world and review innovative methodological approaches, recent scientific results, and analyses of new source materials.

Swiss hail measurement network

5 October 2020

Because of its complex topography and an exceptional hail data base, Switzerland is a perfect laboratory for hail research. It is regularly affected by severe thunderstorms which cause substantial damage and represent high costs for insurance companies. The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks explains in a new video (in German) why Swiss hail research is unique.

Watch the video

Marine heatwaves are human made

24 September 2020

Heatwaves in the world’s oceans have become over 20 times more frequent due to human influence. This is what researchers from the OCCR are now able to prove. Marine heatwaves destroy ecosystems and damage fisheries.

Anthropogenic CO₂ increase is unprecedented

21 August 2020

Even in earlier warm periods there were pulse-like releases of CO₂ to the atmosphere. Today's anthropogenic CO₂ rise, however, is more than six times larger and almost ten times faster than previous jumps in the CO₂ concentration. This is the conclusion reached by a European research team led by the OCCR.

Flood Damage Simulator launched

25 June 2020

The OCCR’s Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks has launched a novel online tool that shows the possible extent of damage from floods throughout Switzerland. The Flood Damage Simulator is based on innovative models developed by the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks, derived from data on round 15,000 flood insurance claims across all of Switzerland.

Eruption of volcano in Alaska linked to extreme cold in ancient Rome

22 June 2020

An international team of scientists and historians including OCCR members has found evidence connecting an unexplained period of extreme cold in ancient Rome with an unlikely source: a massive eruption of Alaska’s Okmok volcano, located on the opposite side of the Earth.

Arctic Ocean acidification worse than previously expected

17 June 2020

The Arctic Ocean will take up more CO2 over the 21st century than predicted by most climate models. This additional CO2 causes a distinctly stronger ocean acidification. These results were published in a study by climate scientists from the OCCR and École normale supérieure in Paris. Ocean acidification can have serious consequences for the entire food chain.

Flood-Risk Affects All of Us

6 June 2020

Floods not only cause great distress to the affected communities, but also result in high costs. For this reason, the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks at the University of Bern launched a research initiative entitled “Flood-Risk Research Initiative – From Theory to Practice”. The goal is to offer a sound basis and innovative tools for the sustainable management of flood risks. The Research Initiative’s new website is now online.

Marie Curie Fellow chooses OCCR

27 April 2020

Andrew Ronald Friedman will join the OCCR as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow later this year. This prestigious fellowship is funded by the European Comission to offer researchers the opportunity to advance their career by spending two years researching at a university in another European country. Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkley and is currently a Postdoc in climate analysis at the University of Edinburgh. He will be part of the OCCR’s Climatology group with a project which combines analysis of early instrumental historical climate data with state-of-the-art reanalysis and model output to understand mechanisms of hydroclimate variability in and around the Atlantic.

Successful visiting scientist program

21 April 2020

The OCCR regularly hosts visiting scientists. This program often triggers fruitful scientific collaborations. A telling example is the visit in 2019 by William Cheung from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He worked with OCCR member Thomas Frölicher on marine heatwaves and impacts on fisheries. Cheung combined output from large ensemble simulations of an Earth system model, which was conducted in Frölicher’s group, with a fish impact model. The collaboration lead to a publication in Scientific Reports entitled “Marine heatwaves exacerbate climate change impacts for fisheries in the northeast Pacific”. This collaboration was supported by the Hans Sigrist Foundation.

International Universities Climate Alliance

6 April 2020

The University of Bern is a founding partner of a new initiative called International Universities Climate Alliance (IUCA) that was launched by the University of New South Wales, Sydney. IUCA intends to form a group of around 50 leading universities, representing all regions of the world, to provide a strong and respected international voice on matters related to climate change science, impacts, mitigation and adaptation. The future role of IUCA should be to engage with policymakers on international climate agreements.

Further research on natural risks and climate impacts

13 March 2020

The University of Bern and the Mobiliar insurance company will continue their partnership researching natural hazards. The contracts for the endowment chair for climate impact research in the Alpine region as well as for the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks have been extended until 2024. The support amounts to one million Swiss francs per year. Hail research, among other things, is one highlight of the collaboration. The lab, which is part of the OCCR, has launched a unique hail monitoring network together with MeteoSwiss. The last of 80 fully automatic hail sensors are currently being installed.

“Fires like the ones in Australia threaten Europe, too”

20 January 2020

Willy Tinner is a specialist when it comes to the history of European fires. In this interview, the paleoecologist and OCCR member talks about the link between the bushfires in Australia and climate change, how the symbolic power of fire helps the climate movement and why Mediterranean countries shouldn’t plant any more pine trees.

Climate change at school

7 January 2020

Climate change is more and more discussed in classrooms. The OCCR is partner of the project CCESO (Climate Change Education and Science Outreach) which has developed a dossier on the causes and consequences of climate change for different school levels. The compilation (in German) was just published on the online portal “éducation 21”.

New show on weather, climate and science

6 January 2020

The OCCR is the scientific partner of a new planetarium show at Museum of Transport in Lucerne. The 45-minute video projection is called “Mission Earth” and makes weather, climate and science a tangible experience. The possibilities of the large-dome Planetarium provide an unique opportunity for explaining climate phenomena to the visitors of one of the most popular Swiss museums. In 2018,