Based on studies of the geologic record, we know that climate change has occurred throughout Earth's history. The latest study from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) concluded that the climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there are evidences that much of the observed temperature increase recorded over the last 50 years is likely human-induced.

These climate changes are being experienced with particularly intensely in the polar regions. However, the impacts of climate change in the polar regions are also likely to have profound global impacts. Increasing our understanding of climate variability and climate change is essential to develop and evaluate mitigation and adaptation strategies and to improve the dissemination of information to enable managing climate risks, policy concerns, and social and political science.

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association has been conducting research activities in the Arctic, the Antarctic and at temperate latitudes since 1980. It coordinates polar research in Germany. The institute's research mission is to improve our understanding of ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions, the animal and plant realms kingdoms of the Arctic and Antarctic, and the evolution of the polar continents and seas. Given the major role played by these regions within the Earth's climate system, global change is a central focus of the research effort at AWI.

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