In 2018 he was succeeded by two joint directors—the climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer, and Earth scientist Johan Rockström, formerly director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

It focuses on the understanding and modelling of the physical and biogeochemical processes that govern the Earth system (i.e. Oceans, Atmosphere and Biosphere) and its response to human interference.

One permanent FutureLab has been established that aims to strengthen the institute's efforts in capacity building activities as well as its social metabolism research endeavors.

The research within this Future Lab is undertaken against the background of the question how we can reconcile short-term human well-being with long-term environmental sustainability.

[8] In the Anthropocene, with exponential rise in human pressures such as greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change, there is an increasing risk of crossing critical thresholds and thereby degrading hard-wired biophysical processes that regulate the state of the entire Earth system.

[9] This FutureLab analyses the role of inequality, human well-being and development for understanding the impacts of and responses to climate change from an economic perspective.

From 2008 to 2015, the IPCC working group Climate Change mitigation was co-chaired by the institute's co-director and chief economist Ottmar Edenhofer.