What is climate overshoot?
​In the context of climate change, “overshoot” refers to scenarios where global temperatures temporarily exceed a specific warming threshold—such as 1.5°C—before later declining to meet that target. This temporary exceedance is referred to as an “overshoot.”
What are overshoot pathways?
Overshoot pathways are characterized by their peak and decline patterns, with the overshoot magnitude and duration influencing the extent of climate impacts during that period. Achieving temperature decline after an overshoot typically relies on large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies to achieve net-negative emissions. However, the feasibility and sustainability of implementing CDR at such scales are uncertain, raising concerns about the effectiveness of overshoot pathways in mitigating long-term climate risks.

 

Scientific Steering Committee

The Scientific Steering Committee is responsible for the strategic direction of the conference. It develops the overarching concept, sets priorities, and makes key decisions regarding the structure of the programme.

Joeri Rogelj

Joeri Rogelj is a climate scientist and professor specializing in climate change mitigation, carbon budgets, and sustainable development pathways. He is a Professor of Climate Science & Policy at Imperial College London and serves as Director of Research at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. His work has contributed to international climate assessments, including reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Rogelj’s research focuses on limiting global warming to 1.5°C, net-zero emissions strategies, and the scientific foundations of international climate policy.

Matthew Gidden

Matthew Gidden is the Deputy Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). His research focuses on sustainable pathways for meeting societal energy demand while mitigating climate and environmental changes. Gidden has extensive experience in integrated assessment modeling, energy systems analysis, and anthropogenic emissions studies. He has contributed to international climate assessments, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, and works on advancing policy-relevant climate research.

Deliang Chen


Deliang Chen is a distinguished climate scientist specializing in climate dynamics, atmospheric circulation, and Earth system science. After over three decades at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, where he held the August Röhss Chair in Physical Geography, he returned to China in late 2024 to join Tsinghua University’s Department of Earth System Science. Throughout his career, Chen has contributed significantly to understanding regional climate changes and their impacts, particularly focusing on the Third Pole (Tibetan Plateau) region. He is an elected member of several prestigious academies, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His extensive research and leadership have earned him international recognition in the field of climate science. 

Debra Roberts

Debra Roberts is an internationally recognized expert in urban sustainability and climate change adaptation. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Biogeography and has played a leading role in integrating environmental planning into local government structures. She was instrumental in establishing the Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department and later led Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives, including serving as Chief Resilience Officer. Roberts has contributed extensively to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including serving as a lead author for the Fifth Assessment Report and as Co-Chair of Working Group II during the Sixth Assessment Cycle. She is also a part-time professor at the University of Twente and a Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her work has been recognized with several awards, and she was named one of the 100 most influential people in climate policy by Apolitical in 2019 and 2022/23.

Jonathan Donges

Jonathan Donges is Deputy Lead of the Earth Resilience Science Unit (ERSU) at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He leads ERSU’s research theme on integrated human-Earth system modelling and Earth resilience analysis. He interacts closely with PIK’s Earth System Analysis (RD1) and Complexity Science Departments (RD4) in the scope of PIK’s Earth System Science collaboration and the COPAN collaboration. His research work focusses on dynamics of planetary-scale socio-ecological systems, climatic and social tipping elements, their dynamics and interactions, decarbonization dynamics and sustainability transformation, conceptual models of society-environment coevolutionary dynamics, structure and dynamics of complex networks, nonlinear dynamics and time series analysis, and application of these methods to climate physics and Earth system analysis.

Kristie L. Ebi 

Kristie L. Ebi, has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate variability and change for 30 years, focusing on estimating current and future health risks of climate change; designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce risks in multi-stressor environments; and estimating the health co-benefits of mitigation policies. She has supported multiple countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing and evaluating adaptation policies and programs. She co-chairs ICONICS.

Sindra Sharma-Khushal

Sindra Sharma-Khushal is a policy advisor and researcher focused on climate change adaptation and sustainable development, particularly in Small Island Developing States. She holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, with research on microfinance and climate resilience. She has worked with organizations like E3G and the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, supporting climate justice and sustainable cooling strategies. Her work bridges policy, environmental psychology, and complex adaptive systems.

Lavanya Rajamani

Lavanya Rajamani is a leading expert in international climate change law and environmental governance. She is a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and has served as a legal advisor to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP Presidencies and various governments in the climate negotiations. Her research focuses on climate justice, equity, and treaty design and drafting, particularly in relation to the Paris Agreement. Rajamani has played a key role in shaping international climate policy. She was part of the UNFCCC core drafting team for the Paris Agreement, and was a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report. She is widely recognized for her scholarship on legal aspects of climate change and environmental law.