Published in

IOP Publishing, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 49(6), p. 492012, 2009

DOI: 10.1088/1755-1307/6/49/492012

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 40(105), p. 15258-15262, 2008

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0711129105

IOP Publishing, IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 49(6), p. 492012

DOI: 10.1088/1755-1307/6/9/492012

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Temperature increase of 21st century mitigation scenarios

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Estimates of 21st Century global-mean surface temperature increase have generally been based on scenarios that do not include climate policies. Newly developed multigas mitigation scenarios, based on a wide range of modeling approaches and socioeconomic assumptions, now allow the assessment of possible impacts of climate policies on projected warming ranges. This article assesses the atmospheric CO2 concentrations, radiative forcing, and temperature increase for these new scenarios using two reduced-complexity climate models. These scenarios result in temperature increase of 0.5–4.4°C over 1990 levels or 0.3–3.4°C less than the no-policy cases. The range results from differences in the assumed stringency of climate policy and uncertainty in our understanding of the climate system. Notably, an average minimum warming of ≈1.4°C (with a full range of 0.5–2.8°C) remains for even the most stringent stabilization scenarios analyzed here. This value is substantially above previously estimated committed warming based on climate system inertia alone. The results show that, although ambitious mitigation efforts can significantly reduce global warming, adaptation measures will be needed in addition to mitigation to reduce the impact of the residual warming. ; D. P. Van Vuuren, M. Meinshausen, G.-K. Plattner, F. Joos, K. M. Strassmann, S. J. Smith, T. M. L. Wigley, S. C. B. Raper, K. Riah, F. de la Chesnaye, M. G. J. den Elzen, J. Fujino, K. Jiang, N. Nakicenovic, S. Paltsev, and J. M. Reilly