The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) - a new scenario framework to provide key narratives for different climate futures

The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) - a new scenario framework to provide key narratives for different climate futures

Wednesday, 4 April 2018 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Climate scenarios capture possible future variations in anthropogenic drivers of climate change, reflecting a wide range of plausible socioeconomic developments. Over the last decades, different scenario families have informed the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This seminar will provide a brief overview of past scenario families before focusing on the new Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) scenario framework. The SSPs re-introduce socioeconomic narratives and provide five distinct storylines for the 21st century. Latest research based on the new scenario framework will be presented  together with newly designed scenario extensions that will help explore climate change impacts beyond the 21st century.
Event Location: 
Australian-German Climate and Energy College
Level 1, 187 Grattan Street
3010 Parkville , VIC
Victoria
Videos
Speakers

Alex studied Geography in Berlin and Climate Science in Bern. Before starting his PhD project in Melbourne he worked at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I Technical Support Unit during the Fifth Assessment cycle. Alex draws on his work experience to develop research questions related to changes in climate systems that potentially have severe societal consequences. He hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the physical implications of different climate futures. For his doctorate, Alex is synthesizing knowledge about multi-centennial sea level rise projections.

Zebedee is a world-leading expert in reduced complexity climate model development. He is the only researcher to have contributed heavily to the development of both MAGICC and FaIR, the two reduced complexity climate models used for emissions scenario assessment in the IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. Alongside Malte, he leads the Reduced Complexity Model Intercomparison Project (RCMIP), which performs standardised evaluation of reduced complexity climate models (see rcmip.org). He also led the development of a common resource for reduced complexity model calibration data based on ESM output (cmip6.science.unimelb.edu.au) and helped create the input greenhouse gas datasets for CMIP6’s future scenario experiments (greenhousegases.science.unimelb.edu.au). Before his PhD, Zebedee completed his undergraduate Masters course in Physics at St.John’s College, University of Oxford. Beyond his PhD and Climate Resource work, Zebedee is also a Contributing Author to Chapter 1 of Working Group 1 of the forthcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.

Web tools and Projects we developed

  • Open-NEM

    The live tracker of the Australian electricity market.

  • Paris Equity Check

    This website is based on a Nature Climate Change study that compares Nationally Determined Contributions with equitable national emissions trajectories in line with the five categories of equity outlined by the IPCC.

  • liveMAGICC Climate Model

    Run one of the most popular reduced-complexity climate carbon cycle models online. Used by IPCC, UNEP GAP reports and numerous scientific publications.

  • NDC & INDC Factsheets

    Check out our analysis of all the post-2020 targets that countries announced under the Paris Agreement.