The European Green Deal zero emissions target, emphasised by the recent energy crisis, puts decarbonisation high up also on the priority lists of policymakers and industries. In this press conference, scientists will show how to best re-purpose coal mines, and decarbonise passenger transport without ignoring equity issues. They will also expose the benefits and risks of an approaching hydrogen economy, and the vulnerability of Swiss hydropower systems to climate variability.

Participants:
Rossella Urgnani
European Funding Development, Warrant Hub, Italy

Elisa Colas
RWTH Aachen, Germany

Yann Yasser Haddad
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Dirk-Jan Van de Ven
Basque Center for Climate Change, Spain

Especially when it becomes scarce or unhealthy, food is an issue that is always critical. In this press conference, scientists share real-time impacts of climate variability and trade disruptions on food security; claim a better understanding of the use of reclaimed water for agricultural irrigation in Spain; and accelerate research to better understand tire-derived compound uptake in lettuce.

Participants:
Marijn Gülpen
Environmental Science Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Paloma Esteve
Departamento de Economía Agraria, Estadística y Gestión de Empresas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain

Thilo Hoffmann
Centre of Microbiology and Environmental System Science, University of Vienna, Austria

In this press conference, we present ground-breaking research findings that shed light on environmental change in Antarctica. In one study from the highly-studied Brunt Ice Shelf, researchers are combining ice cores, seismic surveys and modelling techniques to unravel the mysteries of iceberg calving, providing valuable insights into the processes driving this phenomenon. A second study, part of the UK-US-led International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration used seismic surveys to visualise the bedrock beneath Thwaites Glacier. The results of this study will feed into models which will give us new insights into the future of this unstable glacier. These studies represent significant strides in our understanding of the changes taking place in Antarctica, and their potential implications for global sea level rise.

Participants:
Olaf Eisen
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Germany

Rob Larter, Emma Pearce, Liz Thomas, Oliver Marsh
British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom

How much do we really know about one the largest planet in our Solar System? As new discoveries emerge from NASA’s Juno mission, observing the Jovian moon Io, another study examining asteroid fragments provides new data about the gas giant itself. An unique family of rare meteorite fragments has revealed the influence that Jupiter’s instability had on the evolution of our Solar System, particularly the asteroid belt between us, as late as 60-100 myr after its formation. Even as these fragments provide new understanding of Jupiter, NASA’s Juno Mission delivers brand new thermal data that indicates the presence of endogenic heat flow on Io, providing new information about the moon’s composition.

Participants
Chrysa Avdellidou
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Scott Bolton
Southwest Research Institute, United States of America

Traces of past human settlements and dispersal patterns are only rare if one does not know where to find them. In this press conference, scientists reveal a wide variety of newly uncovered traces, ranging from huge erratic boulders in the young glacial area of Poland, limescale in ancient Roman aqueducts, to the evidence carried by tiny pollen grains and even tinier cosmogenic nuclides. With this data, we gain new insight into geoscience influenced myths of frost giants, the pathways of Greek nomads and human dispersal patterns across Eurasia, and how water resource management and adaptations to climate crises were a problem for ancient settlements too.

Participants:

Adam Izdebski
Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany

Gül Sürmelihindi
University of Mainz, Germany

John D. Jansen
GFÚ Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia

Robert Piotrowski
Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

In this press conference, scientists explain how Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps to keep track of tropical-like cyclones across the Mediterranean Sea, so-called ‘Medicanes’, and how having a truly in-depth look at damage datasets can actually prevent financial losses when windstorms hit Europe. Researchers will also outline how climate models are underestimating summer warming in Western Europe, and that recently observed extreme heatwaves will likely be dwarfed by future events.

Participants:
Javier Martinez-Amaya
Image Processing Laboratory, University of Valencia, Spain

Dominik L. Schumacher
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Julia Moemken
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Philipp Aglas-Leitner
Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia

Our planet protects us from cosmic rays, solar flares, micrometeorites and huge temperature variations. But what if the planetary shield is not strong enough, or what if we venture out into space itself?! In this press conference, scientists discuss the observation of biosignatures on distant exoplanets and where is the best Lunar real estate. For those who decide to remain on spaceship Earth, scientists outline how they predict sunspots and other extreme space weather with the help of advanced Machine Learning technology and.... a regular clock.

Participants:
Werner Grandl
Space Renaissance International, Italy

Stephanie Olson
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, United States of America

Andong Hu
CU Boulder, United States of America

Sandra Chapman
Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, Physics Department, University of Warwick, United Kingdom and Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tromso, Norway