New Study For Climate Modeling, Analyses, and Scenarios

Abstract

The European Commission is funding the ENSEMBLES project, which aims to provide policy makers with information from the latest climate modeling, analyses, and scenarios. Currently, the most comprehensive estimates of climate change are made using general circulation models (GCMs) and Earth system models, but these have been used mostly to simulate futures that do not factor in climate mitigation policy. The results of these simulations typically show global average warming greatly exceeding the European Union (EU) climate policy target of 2°C above preindustrial levels, with associated large impacts on human and natural systems.To date, simple climate models typically have been used to assess the emissions trajectories that are required for meeting this target. The ENSEMBLES project is the first international multiclimate model intercomparison using a politically relevant aggressive mitigation scenario, referred to as E1 (Figures 1a and 1b). This scenario leads to a peak in the carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent concentration in the atmosphere at around 535 parts per million (ppm) in 2045 before eventually stabilizing at around 450 ppm during the 22nd century. The climate models used are generally improved or extended versions of models contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report.