The Oeschger Centre's position in the broad field of climate sciences is very clear. The main scientific focus is on the climate system and its interactions with society and the economy and, thus, contributes to the “Sustainability Focus” of the University of Bern. The research is comprised of four closely linked core areas:
- global climate dynamics
- regional climate dynamics
- consequences of climate change as well as climate risks
- consequences of climate change for the economy and society as well as the adaptive and legal strategies that are derived from them
The main emphasis includes:
- the climate system with the different interactive components in oceans, continents and in the atmosphere
- energy fluxes and bio-geochemical cycles (e.g. water, carbon and greenhouse gases) from global to local scales
- long-term climate and environmental dynamics (Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology) from the late Pleistocene, Holocene, and the present to the near future
- the interaction of climate and environmental changes with the economy and society, in particular the economics of climate change as well as the consequences of extreme events on the economy and society
On the one hand, the Oeschger Centre uses models of different kinds and complexity, and on the other hand, measurements or proxy-based reconstructions on important climate variables (including natural and anthropogenic forcing) are performed.
The main avenues of research also appear in the curriculum of the Graduate School of Climate Sciences of the University of Bern.
