An introduction into the physical and chemical basis of climate change will be given, which comprises both radiation equilibria and atmospheric processes that lead to global warming, commonly labeled as climate change. We will discuss feedback loops, which are capable of changing earth’s surface temperature and related quantities in a disruptive and irreversible manner, with a focus on time-scales of these changes. Consequences of temperature and precipitation changes on damage scenarios, public health, and life expectancy issues will be discussed. 

The session is open to all professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis of climate change, the importance of tipping points and their implications for the insurance sector.
Given the wide range of potential implication of climate change for insurers, the session is potentially interesting for a wide range of professionals working in the fields of Risk Management, Finance, Compliance, and Sustainability.

Technical Requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom will be used for this online training). Please also make sure to join the web session with a stable internet connection.

The consequences of human made climate change on ecosystems and societies are closely intermingled. These consequences cannot be fully understood, without the knowledge of their chemical and physical basis. We aim to an understanding of this basis, without a deep knowledge in chemistry or physics and the implications for the insurance sector.

The language of the web session will be English.

Michael Schmitt
Michael is Professor for Physical Chemistry at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf and editor of the Journal of Molecular Structure. He is currently director of the department of chemistry in Düsseldorf and is working in the field of molecular physics, environmental chemistry, sustainability, and science communication. He organized a lecture series on climate crisis at HHU for students and the general public, which remains the most visited event since then. Since 2022, he is scientific advisor in the working group climate scenarios of the German Association of Actuaries (DAV).