One of the declared goals of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, changing the context for policy-relevant research and posing a major challenge for researchers. In response, today’s climate research is largely focused on analysing and understanding the regional effects of global climate change, especially to describe the impacts of climate change on a socially relevant scale.

This is where the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM comes in: since October 2009, experts from the nine centres in the Helmholtz Association’s research field Earth and Environment have been collaborating on eight research topics. Working hand in hand with university partners, the Helmholtz Research Centres can effectively pool their regional climate change expertise. Regional observations and process studies, together with simulations, will help to refine regional and global climate models, which in turn provide a solid basis for informed climate-related decision-making. In addition, REKLIM fosters interdisciplinary regional climate research in Germany.

Looking back on ten successful years and looking ahead to the next funding period, REKLIM will host the 2nd International Conference.