Annika Högner
Researcher
Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Biography
Annika Högner is a researcher in the Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group of the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program and a PhD candidate in the Geography Department of the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems at Humboldt University Berlin.She works to operationalize attribution science, developing tools to quantify how implemented policies, as well as gaps in implementation and ambition over the past few decades have shaped climate impacts. This includes mapping missed opportunities and worst cases avoided to date using counterfactual emissions pathways. Her research also aims to extend this work forward: assigning state responsibility under pathways that temporarily overshoot 1.5°C will require assessing obligations under international law against regional physical impacts, with a thorough understanding of what drives temperature change after net zero. Across this work, she sits at the intersection of physical science, emissions scenarios, and climate accountability.
Högner holds master-level degrees in Physics (Technical University Berlin), Fine Arts (University of the Arts Berlin), and Climate, Earth, Water, Sustainability (Potsdam University).
Last update: 15 JUL 2026
Publications
Schleussner, C.-F. , Högner, A. , Möller, T., Zimmer, A., & Kornhuber, K. (2025). Tipping Points in the Earth System in the context of the NGFS physical risk assessment – A short note. Network of Greening the Financial System
Högner, A. , Di Capua, G., Donges, J., Donner, R., Feulner, G., & Wunderling, N. (2025). Causal pathway from AMOC to Southern Amazon rainforest indicates stabilising interaction between two climate tipping elements. Environmental Research Letters 20 e074026. 10.1088/1748-9326/addb62.
Högner, A. & Wunderling, N. (2025). Causal pathway from AMOC to Southern Amazon rainforest time series data. 10.5281/zenodo.14726514.
Möller, T., Högner, A.E. , Schleussner, C.-F. , Bien, S., Kitzmann, N.H., Lamboll, R.D., Rogelj, J. , Donges, J.F., Rockström, J., & Wunderling, N. (2024). Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions critical to limit climate tipping risks. Nature Communications 15 (1) e6192. 10.1038/s41467-024-49863-0.
Lenton, T.M., Milkoreit, M., Wilcock, S., Abrams, J.F., Armstrong McKay, D.I., Buxton, J.E., Donges, J.F., Loriani, S., Wunderling, N., Alkemade, F., Barrett, M., Constantino, S., Powell, T., Smith, S.R., Boulton, C.A., Pinho, P., Dijkstra, H.A., Pearce-Kelly, P., Roman-Cuesta, R.M., & Dennis, D. The Global Tipping Points Report 2025. University of Exeter , Exeter, UK.