TY - JOUR A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Madeddu, Silvia A1 - Merfort, Leon A1 - Ueckerdt, Falko A1 - Pehl, Michaja A1 - Pietzcker, Robert C. A1 - Rottoli, Marianna A1 - Schreyer, Felix A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Baumstark, Lavinia A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Dirnaichner, Alois A1 - Humpenöder, Florian A1 - Levesque, Antoine A1 - Popp, Alexander A1 - Rodrigues, Renato A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Kriegler, Elmar T1 - Impact of declining renewable energy costs on electrification in low-emission scenarios JF - Nature energy N2 - Cost degression in photovoltaics, wind-power and battery storage has been faster than previously anticipated. In the future, climate policy to limit global warming to 1.5–2 °C will make carbon-based fuels increasingly scarce and expensive. Here we show that further progress in solar- and wind-power technology along with carbon pricing to reach the Paris Climate targets could make electricity cheaper than carbon-based fuels. In combination with demand-side innovation, for instance in e-mobility and heat pumps, this is likely to induce a fundamental transformation of energy systems towards a dominance of electricity-based end uses. In a 1.5 °C scenario with limited availability of bioenergy and carbon dioxide removal, electricity could account for 66% of final energy by mid-century, three times the current levels and substantially higher than in previous climate policy scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The lower production of bioenergy in our high-electrification scenarios markedly reduces energy-related land and water requirements. KW - climate-change mitigation KW - energy modelling KW - renewable energy Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00937-z SN - 2058-7546 N1 - Corrigendum: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01000-1 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 32 EP - 42 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Malik, Aman A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Luderer, Gunnar T1 - Climate policy accelerates structural changes in energy employment JF - Energy policy N2 - The employment implications of decarbonizing the energy sector have received far less attention than the technology dimension of the transition, although being of critical importance to policymakers. In this work, we adapt a methodology based on employment factors to project future changes in quantity and composition of direct energy supply jobs for two scenarios - (1) relatively weak emissions reductions as pledged in the nationally determined contributions (NDC) and (2) stringent reductions compatible with the 1.5 °C target. We find that in the near-term the 1.5°C-compatible scenario results in a net increase in jobs through gains in solar and wind jobs in construction, installation, and manufacturing, despite significant losses in coal fuel supply; eventually leading to a peak in total direct energy jobs in 2025. In the long run, improvements in labour productivity lead to a decrease of total direct energy employment compared to today, however, total jobs are still higher in a 1.5 °C than in an NDC scenario. Operation and maintenance jobs dominate future jobs, replacing fuel supply jobs. The results point to the need for active policies aimed at retraining, both inside and outside the renewable energy sector, to complement climate policies within the concept of a “just transition”. KW - energy supply KW - employment KW - just transition KW - political feasibility KW - mitigation pathways KW - integrated assessment models Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112642 SN - 0301-4215 VL - 159 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auer, Cornelia A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Carlsen, Henrik A1 - Kok, Kasper A1 - Pedde, Simona A1 - Krey, Volker A1 - Müller, Boris T1 - Climate change scenario services BT - from science to facilitating action JF - One earth N2 - The goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C as set out in the Paris Agreement calls for a strategic assessment of societal pathways and policy strategies. Besides policy makers, new powerful actors from the private sector, including finance, have stepped up to engage in forward-looking assessments of a Paris-compliant and climate-resilient future. Climate change scenarios have addressed this demand by providing scientific insights on the possible pathways ahead to limit warming in line with the Paris climate goal. Despite the increased interest, the potential of climate change scenarios has not been fully unleashed, mostly due to a lack of an intermediary service that provides guidance and access to climate change scenarios. This perspective presents the concept of a climate change scenario service, its components, and a prototypical implementation to overcome this shortcoming aiming to make scenarios accessible to a broader audience of societal actors and decision makers. KW - climate change scenarios KW - climate change scenario services KW - climate services KW - co-production KW - visualization KW - capacity building KW - mitigation scenarios KW - adaptation scenarios KW - impact projections Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.07.015 SN - 2590-3322 VL - 4 IS - 8 SP - 1074 EP - 1082 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - THES A1 - Kriegler, Elmar T1 - Imprecise probability analysis for integrated assessment of climate change T1 - Anwendung der Theorie der unscharfen Wahrscheinlichkeit in der integrierten Analyse des Klimawandels N2 - We present an application of imprecise probability theory to the quantification of uncertainty in the integrated assessment of climate change. Our work is motivated by the fact that uncertainty about climate change is pervasive, and therefore requires a thorough treatment in the integrated assessment process. Classical probability theory faces some severe difficulties in this respect, since it cannot capture very poor states of information in a satisfactory manner. A more general framework is provided by imprecise probability theory, which offers a similarly firm evidential and behavioural foundation, while at the same time allowing to capture more diverse states of information. An imprecise probability describes the information in terms of lower and upper bounds on probability. For the purpose of our imprecise probability analysis, we construct a diffusion ocean energy balance climate model that parameterises the global mean temperature response to secular trends in the radiative forcing in terms of climate sensitivity and effective vertical ocean heat diffusivity. We compare the model behaviour to the 20th century temperature record in order to derive a likelihood function for these two parameters and the forcing strength of anthropogenic sulphate aerosols. Results show a strong positive correlation between climate sensitivity and ocean heat diffusivity, and between climate sensitivity and absolute strength of the sulphate forcing. We identify two suitable imprecise probability classes for an efficient representation of the uncertainty about the climate model parameters and provide an algorithm to construct a belief function for the prior parameter uncertainty from a set of probability constraints that can be deduced from the literature or observational data. For the purpose of updating the prior with the likelihood function, we establish a methodological framework that allows us to perform the updating procedure efficiently for two different updating rules: Dempster's rule of conditioning and the Generalised Bayes' rule. Dempster's rule yields a posterior belief function in good qualitative agreement with previous studies that tried to constrain climate sensitivity and sulphate aerosol cooling. In contrast, we are not able to produce meaningful imprecise posterior probability bounds from the application of the Generalised Bayes' Rule. We can attribute this result mainly to our choice of representing the prior uncertainty by a belief function. We project the Dempster-updated belief function for the climate model parameters onto estimates of future global mean temperature change under several emissions scenarios for the 21st century, and several long-term stabilisation policies. Within the limitations of our analysis we find that it requires a stringent stabilisation level of around 450 ppm carbon dioxide equivalent concentration to obtain a non-negligible lower probability of limiting the warming to 2 degrees Celsius. We discuss several frameworks of decision-making under ambiguity and show that they can lead to a variety of, possibly imprecise, climate policy recommendations. We find, however, that poor states of information do not necessarily impede a useful policy advice. We conclude that imprecise probabilities constitute indeed a promising candidate for the adequate treatment of uncertainty in the integrated assessment of climate change. We have constructed prior belief functions that allow much weaker assumptions on the prior state of information than a prior probability would require and, nevertheless, can be propagated through the entire assessment process. As a caveat, the updating issue needs further investigation. Belief functions constitute only a sensible choice for the prior uncertainty representation if more restrictive updating rules than the Generalised Bayes'Rule are available. N2 - Diese Arbeit untersucht die Eignung der Theorie der unscharfen Wahrscheinlichkeiten für die Beschreibung der Unsicherheit in der integrierten Analyse des Klimawandels. Die wissenschaftliche Unsicherheit bezüglich vieler Aspekte des Klimawandels ist beträchtlich, so dass ihre angemessene Beschreibung von großer Wichtigkeit ist. Die klassische Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie weist in diesem Zusammenhang einige Probleme auf, da sie Zustände sehr geringer Information nicht zufriedenstellend beschreiben kann. Die unscharfe Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie bietet ein gleichermaßen fundiertes Theoriegebäude, welches jedoch eine größere Flexibilität bei der Beschreibung verschiedenartiger Informationszustände erlaubt. Unscharfe Wahrscheinlichkeiten erfassen solche Informationszustände durch die Spezifizierung von unteren und oberen Grenzen an zulässige Werte der Wahrscheinlichkeit. Unsere Analyse des Klimawandels beruht auf einem Energiebilanzmodell mit diffusivem Ozean, welches die globale Temperaturantwort auf eine Änderung der Strahlungsbilanz in Abhängigkeit von zwei Parametern beschreibt: die Klimasensitivität, und die effektive vertikale Wärmediffusivität im Ozean. Wir vergleichen das Modellverhalten mit den Temperaturmessungen des 20. Jahrhunderts, um eine sogenannte Likelihood-Funktion für die Hypothesen zu diesen beiden Parametern sowie dem kühlenden Einfluss der Sulfataerosole zu ermitteln. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich eine stark positive Korrelation zwischen Klimasensitivität und Wärmediffusivität im Ozean, und Klimasensitivität und kühlendem Einfluss der Sulfataerosole. Für die effiziente Beschreibung der Parameterunsicherheit ziehen wir zwei geeignete Modelltypen aus der unscharfen Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie heran. Wir formulieren einen Algorithmus, der den Informationsgehalt beider Modelle durch eine sogenannte Belief-Funktion beschreibt. Mit Hilfe dieses Algorithmus konstruieren wir Belief-Funktionen für die A-priori-Parameterunsicherheit auf der Grundlage von divergierenden Wahrscheinlichkeitsschätzungen in der Literatur bzw. Beobachtungsdaten. Wir leiten eine Methode her, um die A-priori-Belief-Funktion im Lichte der Likelihood-Funktion zu aktualisieren. Dabei ziehen wir zwei verschiedene Regeln zur Durchführung des Lernprozesses in Betracht: die Dempstersche Regel und die verallgemeinerte Bayessche Regel. Durch Anwendung der Dempsterschen Regel erhalten wir eineA-posteriori-Belief-Funktion, deren Informationsgehalt qualitativ mit den Ergebnissen bisheriger Studien übereinstimmt, die eine Einschränkung der Unsicherheit über die Klimasensitivität und die kühlende Wirkung der Sulfataerosole versucht haben. Im Gegensatz dazu finden wir bei Anwendung der verallgemeinerten Bayesschen Regel keine sinnvollen unteren und oberen Grenzen an die A-posteriori-Wahrscheinlichkeit. Wir stellen fest, dass dieses Resultat maßgeblich durch die Wahl einer Belief-Funktion zur Beschreibung der A-priori-Unsicherheit bedingt ist. Die A-posteriori-Belief-Funktion für die Modellparameter, die wir aus der Anwendung der Dempsterschen Regel erhalten haben, wird zur Abschätzung des zukünftigen Temperaturanstiegs eingesetzt. Wir betrachten verschiedene Emissionsszenarien für das 21. Jahrhundert sowie verschiedene Stabilisierungsziele für den Treibhausgasgehalt in der Atmosphäre. Im Rahmen unserer Analyse finden wir, dass sehr strikte Stabilisierungsziele im Bereich einer Kohlendioxid-Äquivalentkonzentration von ca. 450 ppm in der Atmosphäre notwendig sind, um nicht eine vernachlässigbar kleine untere Wahrscheinlichkeit für die Begrenzung der Erwärmung auf 2 Grad Celsius zu erhalten. Wir diskutieren verschiedene Kriterien für die Entscheidungsfindung unter unscharfer Wahrscheinlichkeit, und zeigen dass sie zu verschiedenen teilweise unscharfen Politikempfehlungen führen können. Nichtsdestotrotz stellen wir fest, dass eine klare Politikempfehlung auch bei Zuständen schwacher Information möglich sein kann. Wir schließen, dass unscharfe Wahrscheinlichkeiten tatsächlich ein geeignetes Mittel zur Beschreibung der Unsicherheit in der integrierten Analyse des Klimawandels darstellen. Wir haben Algorithmen zur Generierung und Weiterverarbeitung von Belief-Funktionen etabliert, die eine deutlich größere A-priori-Unsicherheit beschreiben können, als durch eine A-priori-Wahrscheinlichkeit möglich wäre. Allerdings erfordert die Frage des Lernprozesses für unscharfe Wahrscheinlichkeiten eine weitergehende Untersuchung. Belief-Funktionen stellen nur dann eine vernünftige Wahl für die Beschreibung der A-priori-Unsicherheit dar, wenn striktere Regeln als die verallgemeinerte Bayessche Regel für den Lernprozess gerechtfertigt werden können. KW - Anthropogene Klimaänderung KW - Klima / Umweltschutz KW - Unschärfe KW - Intervallwahrscheinlichkeit KW - Entscheidung bei Unsicherheit KW - Climate Change KW - Integrated Assessment KW - Uncertainty KW - Imprecise Probability KW - Decision Making under Ambiguity Y1 - 2005 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-5611 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Duan, Hongbo A1 - Zhou, Sheng A1 - Jiang, Kejun A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Harmsen, Mathijs A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - Wang, Shouyang A1 - Fujimori, Shinichiro A1 - Tavoni, Massimo A1 - Ming, Xi A1 - Keramidas, Kimon A1 - Iyer, Gokul A1 - Edmonds, James T1 - Assessing China’s efforts to pursue the 1.5°C warming limit JF - Science N2 - Given the increasing interest in keeping global warming below 1.5°C, a key question is what this would mean for China’s emission pathway, energy restructuring, and decarbonization. By conducting a multimodel study, we find that the 1.5°C-consistent goal would require China to reduce its carbon emissions and energy consumption by more than 90 and 39%, respectively, compared with the “no policy” case. Negative emission technologies play an important role in achieving near-zero emissions, with captured carbon accounting on average for 20% of the total reductions in 2050. Our multimodel comparisons reveal large differences in necessary emission reductions across sectors, whereas what is consistent is that the power sector is required to achieve full decarbonization by 2050. The cross-model averages indicate that China’s accumulated policy costs may amount to 2.8 to 5.7% of its gross domestic product by 2050, given the 1.5°C warming limit. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba8767 SN - 1095-9203 SN - 0036-8075 VL - 372 IS - 6540 SP - 378 EP - 385 PB - American Association for the Advancement of Science CY - Washington, DC ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Piontek, Franziska A1 - Kalkuhl, Matthias A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Schultes, Anselm A1 - Leimbach, Marian A1 - Edenhofer, Ottmar A1 - Bauer, Nico T1 - Economic Growth Effects of Alternative Climate Change Impact Channels in Economic Modeling JF - Environmental & resource economics : the official journal of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists N2 - Despite increasing empirical evidence of strong links between climate and economic growth, there is no established model to describe the dynamics of how different types of climate shocks affect growth patterns. Here we present the first comprehensive, comparative analysis of the long-term dynamics of one-time, temporary climate shocks on production factors, and factor productivity, respectively, in a Ramsey-type growth model. Damages acting directly on production factors allow us to study dynamic effects on factor allocation, savings and economic growth. We find that the persistence of impacts on economic activity is smallest for climate shocks directly impacting output, and successively increases for direct damages on capital, loss of labor and productivity shocks, related to different responses in savings rates and factor-specific growth. Recurring shocks lead to large welfare effects and long-term growth effects, directly linked to the persistence of individual shocks. Endogenous savings and shock anticipation both have adaptive effects but do not eliminate differences between impact channels or significantly lower the dissipation time. Accounting for endogenous growth mechanisms increases the effects. We also find strong effects on income shares, important for distributional implications. This work fosters conceptual understanding of impact dynamics in growth models, opening options for links to empirics. KW - Climate change KW - Damages KW - Economic growth KW - Impact channels KW - Production factors KW - Persistence Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-018-00306-7 SN - 0924-6460 SN - 1573-1502 VL - 73 IS - 4 SP - 1357 EP - 1385 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kikstra, Jarmo S. A1 - Nicholls, Zebedee R. J. A1 - Smith, Christopher J. A1 - Lewis, Jared A1 - Lamboll, Robin D. A1 - Byers, Edward A1 - Sandstad, Marit A1 - Meinshausen, Malte A1 - Gidden, Matthew J. A1 - Rogelj, Joeri A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Peters, Glen P. A1 - Fuglestvedt, Jan S. A1 - Skeie, Ragnhild B. A1 - Samset, Bjørn H. A1 - Wienpahl, Laura A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - van der Wijst, Kaj-Ivar A1 - Al Khourdajie, Alaa A1 - Forster, Piers M. A1 - Reisinger, Andy A1 - Schaeffer, Roberto A1 - Riahi, Keywan T1 - The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report WGIII climate assessment of mitigation pathways BT - from emissions to global temperatures JF - Geoscientific model development N2 - While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) physical science reports usually assess a handful of future scenarios, the Working Group III contribution on climate mitigation to the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6 WGIII) assesses hundreds to thousands of future emissions scenarios. A key task in WGIII is to assess the global mean temperature outcomes of these scenarios in a consistent manner, given the challenge that the emissions scenarios from different integrated assessment models (IAMs) come with different sectoral and gas-to-gas coverage and cannot all be assessed consistently by complex Earth system models. In this work, we describe the “climate-assessment” workflow and its methods, including infilling of missing emissions and emissions harmonisation as applied to 1202 mitigation scenarios in AR6 WGIII. We evaluate the global mean temperature projections and effective radiative forcing (ERF) characteristics of climate emulators FaIRv1.6.2 and MAGICCv7.5.3 and use the CICERO simple climate model (CICERO-SCM) for sensitivity analysis. We discuss the implied overshoot severity of the mitigation pathways using overshoot degree years and look at emissions and temperature characteristics of scenarios compatible with one possible interpretation of the Paris Agreement. We find that the lowest class of emissions scenarios that limit global warming to “1.5 ∘C (with a probability of greater than 50 %) with no or limited overshoot” includes 97 scenarios for MAGICCv7.5.3 and 203 for FaIRv1.6.2. For the MAGICCv7.5.3 results, “limited overshoot” typically implies exceedance of median temperature projections of up to about 0.1 ∘C for up to a few decades before returning to below 1.5 ∘C by or before the year 2100. For more than half of the scenarios in this category that comply with three criteria for being “Paris-compatible”, including net-zero or net-negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, median temperatures decline by about 0.3–0.4 ∘C after peaking at 1.5–1.6 ∘C in 2035–2055. We compare the methods applied in AR6 with the methods used for SR1.5 and discuss their implications. This article also introduces a “climate-assessment” Python package which allows for fully reproducing the IPCC AR6 WGIII temperature assessment. This work provides a community tool for assessing the temperature outcomes of emissions pathways and provides a basis for further work such as extending the workflow to include downscaling of climate characteristics to a regional level and calculating impacts. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-9075-2022 SN - 1991-959X SN - 1991-9603 VL - 15 IS - 24 SP - 9075 EP - 9109 PB - Copernicus CY - Katlenburg-Lindau ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Riahi, Keywan A1 - Hilaire, Jérôme A1 - Bosetti, Valentina A1 - Drouet, Laurent A1 - Fricko, Oliver A1 - Malik, Aman A1 - Nogueira, Larissa Pupo A1 - van der Zwaan, Bob A1 - van Ruijven, Bas A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - Weitzel, Matthias A1 - Longa, Francesco Dalla A1 - de Boer, Harmen-Sytze A1 - Emmerling, Johannes A1 - Fosse, Florian A1 - Fragkiadakis, Kostas A1 - Harmsen, Mathijs A1 - Keramidas, Kimon A1 - Kishimoto, Paul Natsuo A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Krey, Volker A1 - Paroussos, Leonidas A1 - Saygin, Deger A1 - Vrontisi, Zoi A1 - Luderer, Gunnar T1 - Energy system developments and investments in the decisive decade for the Paris Agreement goals JF - Environmental research letters N2 - The Paris Agreement does not only stipulate to limit the global average temperature increase to well below 2 °C, it also calls for 'making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions'. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand the implications of climate targets for energy systems and quantify the associated investment requirements in the coming decade. A meaningful analysis must however consider the near-term mitigation requirements to avoid the overshoot of a temperature goal. It must also include the recently observed fast technological progress in key mitigation options. Here, we use a new and unique scenario ensemble that limit peak warming by construction and that stems from seven up-to-date integrated assessment models. This allows us to study the near-term implications of different limits to peak temperature increase under a consistent and up-to-date set of assumptions. We find that ambitious immediate action allows for limiting median warming outcomes to well below 2 °C in all models. By contrast, current nationally determined contributions for 2030 would add around 0.2 °C of peak warming, leading to an unavoidable transgression of 1.5 °C in all models, and 2 °C in some. In contrast to the incremental changes as foreseen by current plans, ambitious peak warming targets require decisive emission cuts until 2030, with the most substantial contribution to decarbonization coming from the power sector. Therefore, investments into low-carbon power generation need to increase beyond current levels to meet the Paris goals, especially for solar and wind technologies and related system enhancements for electricity transmission, distribution and storage. Estimates on absolute investment levels, up-scaling of other low-carbon power generation technologies and investment shares in less ambitious scenarios vary considerably across models. In scenarios limiting peak warming to below 2 °C, while coal is phased out quickly, oil and gas are still being used significantly until 2030, albeit at lower than current levels. This requires continued investments into existing oil and gas infrastructure, but investments into new fields in such scenarios might not be needed. The results show that credible and effective policy action is essential for ensuring efficient allocation of investments aligned with medium-term climate targets. KW - Paris Agreement KW - energy investments KW - mitigation policies KW - climate policy KW - integrated assessment modelling Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac09ae SN - 1748-9326 VL - 16 IS - 7 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Harmsen, Mathijs A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - van der Wijst, Kaj-Ivar A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Cui, Ryna A1 - Dessens, Olivier A1 - Drouet, Laurent A1 - Emmerling, Johannes A1 - Morris, Jennifer Faye A1 - Fosse, Florian A1 - Fragkiadakis, Dimitris A1 - Fragkiadakis, Kostas A1 - Fragkos, Panagiotis A1 - Fricko, Oliver A1 - Fujimori, Shinichiro A1 - Gernaat, David A1 - Guivarch, Céline A1 - Iyer, Gokul A1 - Karkatsoulis, Panagiotis A1 - Keppo, Ilkka A1 - Keramidas, Kimon A1 - Köberle, Alexandre A1 - Kolp, Peter A1 - Krey, Volker A1 - Krüger, Christoph A1 - Leblanc, Florian A1 - Mittal, Shivika A1 - Paltsev, Sergey A1 - Rochedo, Pedro A1 - van Ruijven, Bas J. A1 - Sands, Ronald D. A1 - Sano, Fuminori A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Arroyo, Eveline Vasquez A1 - Wada, Kenichi A1 - Zakeri, Behnam T1 - Integrated assessment model diagnostics BT - key indicators and model evolution JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Integrated assessment models (IAMs) form a prime tool in informing about climate mitigation strategies. Diagnostic indicators that allow comparison across these models can help describe and explain differences in model projections. This increases transparency and comparability. Earlier, the IAM community has developed an approach to diagnose models (Kriegler (2015 Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 90 45–61)). Here we build on this, by proposing a selected set of well-defined indicators as a community standard, to systematically and routinely assess IAM behaviour, similar to metrics used for other modeling communities such as climate models. These indicators are the relative abatement index, emission reduction type index, inertia timescale, fossil fuel reduction, transformation index and cost per abatement value. We apply the approach to 17 IAMs, assessing both older as well as their latest versions, as applied in the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. The study shows that the approach can be easily applied and used to indentify key differences between models and model versions. Moreover, we demonstrate that this comparison helps to link model behavior to model characteristics and assumptions. We show that together, the set of six indicators can provide useful indication of the main traits of the model and can roughly indicate the general model behavior. The results also show that there is often a considerable spread across the models. Interestingly, the diagnostic values often change for different model versions, but there does not seem to be a distinct trend. KW - diagnostics KW - integrated assessment models KW - climate policy KW - Assessment Report IPCC KW - renewable energy KW - migration KW - AR6 Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf964 SN - 1748-9326 VL - 16 IS - 5 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Riahi, Keywan A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Huppmann, Daniel A1 - Rogelj, Joeri A1 - Bosetti, Valentina A1 - Cabardos, Anique-Marie A1 - Deppermann, Andre A1 - Drouet, Laurent A1 - Frank, Stefan A1 - Fricko, Oliver A1 - Fujimori, Shinichiro A1 - Harmsen, Mathijs A1 - Hasegawa, Tomoko A1 - Krey, Volker A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Paroussos, Leonidas A1 - Schaeffer, Roberto A1 - Weitzel, Matthias A1 - van der Zwaan, Bob A1 - Vrontisi, Zoi A1 - Longa, Francesco Dalla A1 - Després, Jacques A1 - Fosse, Florian A1 - Fragkiadakis, Kostas A1 - Gusti, Mykola A1 - Humpenöder, Florian A1 - Keramidas, Kimon A1 - Kishimoto, Paul A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Meinshausen, Malte A1 - Nogueira, Larissa Pupo A1 - Oshiro, Ken A1 - Popp, Alexander A1 - Rochedo, Pedro R. R. A1 - Ünlü, Gamze A1 - van Ruijven, Bas A1 - Takakura, Junya A1 - Tavoni, Massimo A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - Zakeri, Behnam T1 - Cost and attainability of meeting stringent climate targets without overshoot JF - Nature climate change N2 - Global emissions scenarios play a critical role in the assessment of strategies to mitigate climate change. The current scenarios, however, are criticized because they feature strategies with pronounced overshoot of the global temperature goal, requiring a long-term repair phase to draw temperatures down again through net-negative emissions. Some impacts might not be reversible. Hence, we explore a new set of net-zero CO2 emissions scenarios with limited overshoot. We show that upfront investments are needed in the near term for limiting temperature overshoot but that these would bring long-term economic gains. Our study further identifies alternative configurations of net-zero CO2 emissions systems and the roles of different sectors and regions for balancing sources and sinks. Even without net-negative emissions, CO2 removal is important for accelerating near-term reductions and for providing an anthropogenic sink that can offset the residual emissions in sectors that are hard to abate. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01215-2 SN - 1758-678X SN - 1758-6798 VL - 11 IS - 12 SP - 1063 EP - 1069 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Soergel, Bjoern A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Weindl, Isabelle A1 - Rauner, Sebastian A1 - Dirnaichner, Alois A1 - Ruhe, Constantin A1 - Hofmann, Matthias A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon A1 - Leimbach, Marian A1 - Leininger, Julia A1 - Levesque, Antoine A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Pehl, Michaja A1 - Wingens, Christopher A1 - Baumstark, Lavinia A1 - Beier, Felicitas A1 - Dietrich, Jan Philipp A1 - Humpenöder, Florian A1 - von Jeetze, Patrick A1 - Klein, David A1 - Koch, Johannes A1 - Pietzcker, Robert C. A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Lotze-Campen, Hermann A1 - Popp, Alexander T1 - A sustainable development pathway for climate action within the UN 2030 Agenda JF - Nature climate change N2 - Ambitious climate policies, as well as economic development, education, technological progress and less resource-intensive lifestyles, are crucial elements for progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, using an integrated modelling framework covering 56 indicators or proxies across all 17 SDGs, we show that they are insufficient to reach the targets. An additional sustainable development package, including international climate finance, progressive redistribution of carbon pricing revenues, sufficient and healthy nutrition and improved access to modern energy, enables a more comprehensive sustainable development pathway. We quantify climate and SDG outcomes, showing that these interventions substantially boost progress towards many aspects of the UN Agenda 2030 and simultaneously facilitate reaching ambitious climate targets. Nonetheless, several important gaps remain; for example, with respect to the eradication of extreme poverty (180 million people remaining in 2030). These gaps can be closed by 2050 for many SDGs while also respecting the 1.5 °C target and several other planetary boundaries. KW - climate-change mitigation KW - climate-change policy KW - socioeconomic scenarios KW - sustainability Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01098-3 SN - 1758-678X SN - 1758-6798 VL - 11 IS - 8 SP - 656 EP - 664 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wilson, Charlie A1 - Guivarch, Céline A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - van Ruijven, Bas A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. A1 - Krey, Volker A1 - Schwanitz, Valeria Jana A1 - Thompson, Erica L. T1 - Evaluating process-based integrated assessment models of climate change mitigation JF - Climatic change N2 - Process-based integrated assessment models (IAMs) project long-term transformation pathways in energy and land-use systems under what-if assumptions. IAM evaluation is necessary to improve the models’ usefulness as scientific tools applicable in the complex and contested domain of climate change mitigation. We contribute the first comprehensive synthesis of process-based IAM evaluation research, drawing on a wide range of examples across six different evaluation methods including historical simulations, stylised facts, and model diagnostics. For each evaluation method, we identify progress and milestones to date, and draw out lessons learnt as well as challenges remaining. We find that each evaluation method has distinctive strengths, as well as constraints on its application. We use these insights to propose a systematic evaluation framework combining multiple methods to establish the appropriateness, interpretability, credibility, and relevance of process-based IAMs as useful scientific tools for informing climate policy. We also set out a programme of evaluation research to be mainstreamed both within and outside the IAM community. KW - process-based integrated assessment model KW - IAM KW - evaluation KW - climate mitigation Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03099-9 SN - 0165-0009 SN - 1573-1480 VL - 166 IS - 1-2 PB - Springer Science + Business Media B.V. CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Soergel, Bjoern A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Leimbach, Marian A1 - Popp, Alexander T1 - Combining ambitious climate policies with efforts to eradicate poverty JF - Nature Communications N2 - Climate change threatens to undermine efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. However, climate policies could impose a financial burden on the global poor through increased energy and food prices. Here, we project poverty rates until 2050 and assess how they are influenced by mitigation policies consistent with the 1.5 degrees C target. A continuation of historical trends will leave 350 million people globally in extreme poverty by 2030. Without progressive redistribution, climate policies would push an additional 50 million people into poverty. However, redistributing the national carbon pricing revenues domestically as an equal-per-capita climate dividend compensates this policy side effect, even leading to a small net reduction of the global poverty headcount (-6 million). An additional international climate finance scheme enables a substantial poverty reduction globally and also in Sub-Saharan Africa. Combining national redistribution with international climate finance thus provides an important entry point to climate policy in developing countries. Ambitious climate policies can negatively impact the global poor by affecting income, food and energy prices. Here, the authors quantify this effect, and show that it can be compensated by national redistribution of the carbon pricing revenues in combination with international climate finance. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22315-9 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 12 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Merfort, Leon A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Humpenöder, Florian A1 - Klein, David A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Popp, Alexander A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Kriegler, Elmar T1 - Bioenergy-induced land-use-change emissions with sectorally fragmented policies JF - Nature climate change N2 - Controlling bioenergy-induced land-use-change emissions is key to exploiting bioenergy for climate change mitigation. However, the effect of different land-use and energy sector policies on specific bioenergy emissions has not been studied so far. Using the global integrated assessment model REMIND-MAgPIE, we derive a biofuel emission factor (EF) for different policy frameworks. We find that a uniform price on emissions from both sectors keeps biofuel emissions at 12 kg CO2 GJ−1. However, without land-use regulation, the EF increases substantially (64 kg CO2 GJ−1 over 80 years, 92 kg CO2 GJ−1 over 30 years). We also find that comprehensive coverage (>90%) of carbon-rich land areas worldwide is key to containing land-use emissions. Pricing emissions indirectly on the level of bioenergy consumption reduces total emissions by cutting bioenergy demand but fails to reduce the average EF. In the absence of comprehensive and timely land-use regulation, bioenergy thus may contribute less to climate change mitigation than assumed previously. KW - agriculture KW - climate-change mitigation KW - energy policy KW - energy supply and demand KW - environmental economics Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01697-2 SN - 1758-678X SN - 1758-6798 VL - 13 IS - 7 SP - 685 EP - 692 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Merfort, Leon A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Humpenöder, Florian A1 - Klein, David A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Popp, Alexander A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Kriegler, Elmar T1 - State of global land regulation inadequate to control biofuel land-use-change emissions JF - Nature climate change N2 - Under current land-use regulation, carbon dioxide emissions from biofuel production exceed those from fossil diesel combustion. Therefore, international agreements need to ensure the effective and globally comprehensive protection of natural land before modern bioenergy can effectively contribute to achieving carbon neutrality. KW - agriculture KW - climate-change mitigation KW - energy policy KW - energy supply and demand KW - environmental economics Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01711-7 SN - 1758-678X SN - 1758-6798 VL - 13 IS - 7 SP - 610 EP - 612 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van Soest, Heleen L. A1 - Aleluia Reis, Lara A1 - Baptista, Luiz Bernardo A1 - Bertram, Christoph A1 - Després, Jacques A1 - Drouet, Laurent A1 - den Elzen, Michel A1 - Fragkos, Panagiotis A1 - Fricko, Oliver A1 - Fujimori, Shinichiro A1 - Grant, Neil A1 - Harmsen, Mathijs A1 - Iyer, Gokul A1 - Keramidas, Kimon A1 - Köberle, Alexandre C. A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Malik, Aman A1 - Mittal, Shivika A1 - Oshiro, Ken A1 - Riahi, Keywan A1 - Roelfsema, Mark A1 - van Ruijven, Bas A1 - Schaeffer, Roberto A1 - Silva Herran, Diego A1 - Tavoni, Massimo A1 - Ünlü, Gamze A1 - Vandyck, Toon A1 - van Vuuren, Detlef P. T1 - Global roll-out of comprehensive policy measures may aid in bridging emissions gap JF - Nature communications N2 - Closing the emissions gap between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the global emissions levels needed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals will require a comprehensive package of policy measures. National and sectoral policies can help fill the gap, but success stories in one country cannot be automatically replicated in other countries. They need to be adapted to the local context. Here, we develop a new Bridge scenario based on nationally relevant, short-term measures informed by interactions with country experts. These good practice policies are rolled out globally between now and 2030 and combined with carbon pricing thereafter. We implement this scenario with an ensemble of global integrated assessment models. We show that the Bridge scenario closes two-thirds of the emissions gap between NDC and 2 °C scenarios by 2030 and enables a pathway in line with the 2 °C goal when combined with the necessary long-term changes, i.e. more comprehensive pricing measures after 2030. The Bridge scenario leads to a scale-up of renewable energy (reaching 52%–88% of global electricity supply by 2050), electrification of end-uses, efficiency improvements in energy demand sectors, and enhanced afforestation and reforestation. Our analysis suggests that early action via good-practice policies is less costly than a delay in global climate cooperation. KW - climate-change mitigation KW - climate-change policy Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26595-z N1 - Corrigendum: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-27969-7 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Nature Publishing Group UK CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Warszawski, Lila A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Lenton, Timothy M. A1 - Gaffney, Owen A1 - Jacob, Daniela A1 - Klingenfeld, Daniel A1 - Koide, Ryu A1 - Costa, María Máñez A1 - Messner, Dirk A1 - Nakicenovic, Nebojsa A1 - Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim A1 - Schlosser, Peter A1 - Takeuchi, Kazuhiko A1 - van der Leeuw, Sander A1 - Whiteman, Gail A1 - Rockström, Johan T1 - All options, not silver bullets, needed to limit global warming to 1.5 °C BT - a scenario appraisal JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Climate science provides strong evidence of the necessity of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. The IPCC 1.5 °C special report (SR1.5) presents 414 emissions scenarios modelled for the report, of which around 50 are classified as '1.5 °C scenarios', with no or low temperature overshoot. These emission scenarios differ in their reliance on individual mitigation levers, including reduction of global energy demand, decarbonisation of energy production, development of land-management systems, and the pace and scale of deploying carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. The reliance of 1.5 °C scenarios on these levers needs to be critically assessed in light of the potentials of the relevant technologies and roll-out plans. We use a set of five parameters to bundle and characterise the mitigation levers employed in the SR1.5 1.5 °C scenarios. For each of these levers, we draw on the literature to define 'medium' and 'high' upper bounds that delineate between their 'reasonable', 'challenging' and 'speculative' use by mid century. We do not find any 1.5 °C scenarios that stay within all medium upper bounds on the five mitigation levers. Scenarios most frequently 'over use' CDR with geological storage as a mitigation lever, whilst reductions of energy demand and carbon intensity of energy production are 'over used' less frequently. If we allow mitigation levers to be employed up to our high upper bounds, we are left with 22 of the SR1.5 1.5 °C scenarios with no or low overshoot. The scenarios that fulfil these criteria are characterised by greater coverage of the available mitigation levers than those scenarios that exceed at least one of the high upper bounds. When excluding the two scenarios that exceed the SR1.5 carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, this subset of 1.5 °C scenarios shows a range of 15–22 Gt CO2 (16–22 Gt CO2 interquartile range) for emissions in 2030. For the year of reaching net zero CO2 emissions the range is 2039–2061 (2049–2057 interquartile range). KW - climate change KW - emissions scenarios KW - 1.5 ◦C KW - negative emissions Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abfeec SN - 1748-9326 N1 - Corrigendum: 10.1088/1748-9326/acbf6a VL - 16 IS - 6 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schultes, Anselm A1 - Piontek, Franziska A1 - Soergel, Bjoern A1 - Rogelj, Joeri A1 - Baumstark, Lavinia A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Edenhofer, Ottmar A1 - Luderer, Gunnar T1 - Economic damages from on-going climate change imply deeper near-term emission cuts JF - Environmental research letters N2 - Pathways toward limiting global warming to well below 2 ∘C, as used by the IPCC in the Fifth Assessment Report, do not consider the climate impacts already occurring below 2 ∘C. Here we show that accounting for such damages significantly increases the near-term ambition of transformation pathways. We use econometric estimates of climate damages on GDP growth and explicitly model the uncertainty in the persistence time of damages. The Integrated Assessment Model we use includes the climate system and mitigation technology detail required to derive near-term policies. We find an optimal carbon price of $115 per tonne of CO2 in 2030. The long-term persistence of damages, while highly uncertain, is a main driver of the near-term carbon price. Accounting for damages on economic growth increases the gap between the currently pledged nationally determined contributions and the welfare-optimal 2030 emissions by two thirds, compared to pathways considering the 2 ∘C limit only. KW - climate change KW - climate mitigation KW - climate impacts KW - integrated assessment Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac27ce SN - 1748-9326 VL - 16 IS - 10 PB - IOP Publishing CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strefler, Jessica A1 - Kriegler, Elmar A1 - Bauer, Nico A1 - Luderer, Gunnar A1 - Pietzcker, Robert C. A1 - Giannousakis, Anastasis A1 - Edenhofer, Ottmar T1 - Alternative carbon price trajectories can avoid excessive carbon removal JF - Nature communications N2 - The large majority of climate change mitigation scenarios that hold warming below 2 °C show high deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), resulting in a peak-and-decline behavior in global temperature. This is driven by the assumption of an exponentially increasing carbon price trajectory which is perceived to be economically optimal for meeting a carbon budget. However, this optimality relies on the assumption that a finite carbon budget associated with a temperature target is filled up steadily over time. The availability of net carbon removals invalidates this assumption and therefore a different carbon price trajectory should be chosen. We show how the optimal carbon price path for remaining well below 2 °C limits CDR demand and analyze requirements for constructing alternatives, which may be easier to implement in reality. We show that warming can be held at well below 2 °C at much lower long-term economic effort and lower CDR deployment and therefore lower risks if carbon prices are high enough in the beginning to ensure target compliance, but increase at a lower rate after carbon neutrality has been reached. KW - climate-change mitigation KW - climate sciences KW - environmental sciences Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22211-2 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER -