Fossil-fueled development (SSP5): An energy and resource intensive scenario for the 21st century

This paper presents a set of energy and resource intensive scenarios based on the concept of Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs). The scenario family is characterized by rapid and fossil-fueled development with high socio-economic challenges to mitigation and low socio-economic challenges to adaptation (SSP5). A special focus is placed on the SSP5 marker scenario developed by the REMIND-MAgPIE integrated assessment modeling framework. The SSP5 baseline scenarios exhibit very high levels of fossil fuel use, up to a doubling of global food demand, and up to a tripling of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the century, marking the upper end of the scenario literature in several dimensions. These scenarios are currently the only SSP scenarios that result in a radiative forcing pathway as high as the highest Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP8.5). This paper further investigates the direct impact of mitigation policies on the SSP5 energy, land and emissions dynamics confirming high socio-economic challenges to mitigation in SSP5. Nonetheless, mitigation policies reaching climate forcing levels as low as in the lowest Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP2.6) are accessible in SSP5. The SSP5 scenarios presented in this paper aim to provide useful reference points for future climate change, climate impact, adaption and mitigation analysis, and broader questions of sustainable development.     

Advancing the use of scenarios to understand society’s capacity to achieve the 1.5 degree target

With a range of potential pathways to a sustainable future compatible with the Paris Agreement 1.5 °C target, scenario analysis has emerged as a key tool in studies of climate change mitigation and adaptation. A wide range of alternative scenarios have been created, and core amongst these are five socio-economic scenarios (Shared Socio-economic Pathways or SSPs) and four emission scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways or RCPs). Whilst mitigation scenarios (the Shared Policy Assumptions, or SPAs) have been developed for each SSP-RCP combination, describing the actions necessary to match the climate pathway of the RCP, there has not yet been a systematic approach to address whether and how these actions can be enabled in practice.We present a novel and transferable framework to understand society’s capacity to achieve the 1.5 °C target, based on four participatory case studies using the SSP-RCP scenarios. The methodology builds on a framework for categorising different types of societal capitals and capacities and assessing their impact on the potential to implement different types of mitigation actions. All four case studies show that SSP1 has the highest potential to reach the target. Although environmental awareness is high in both SSP1 and SSP4, continued social inequalities in SSP4 restrict society’s capacity to transform, despite economic growth. In the two least environmentally-aware SSPs, SSP3 and SSP5, the transformation potential is low, but the view on capitals and capacities nonetheless helps identify opportunities for actors to develop and implement mitigation actions.The study highlights that techno-economic assessments of climate strategies need to be complemented by consideration of the critical role played by social and human capital, and by societal capacity to mobilise and create these capitals despite different socio-economic trends. These capitals and capacities are essential to enable the rapid innovation, behavioural change and international co-ordination needed to achieve the 1.5 °C target.     

代表性浓度路径情景下的全球温室气体减排和对中国的挑战

介绍了政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）为第五次评估报告开发的新情景——代表性浓度路径（RCPs）,分析了RCPs情景的内在优势,并描述了4类代表性RCPs（RCP8.5、RCP6、RCP4.5和RCP3-PD）的特征。利用IPCC最新发布的RCPs数据,分析了高端、中端稳定和低端浓度路径下,全球温室气体的排放空间、区域分担和减排成本,并着重探讨了低端路径与全球温度升幅限制在2℃以下目标之间的关系及其给中国带来的主要挑战和应对途径。     

气候变化背景下中国滑坡灾害人口风险评估

中国是世界上滑坡灾害造成人口伤亡较严重的国家.受气候变化影响,极端降水频率与强度的增加会提高滑坡灾害的人口风险.文中将不同RCPs情景多个模式的未来降水数据和SSPs情景下的未来人口数据相结合,构建滑坡灾害人口风险评估模型,评估气候变化背景下的中国滑坡灾害人口风险.研究发现,气候变化下中国滑坡灾害的危险性呈上升趋势,预...     

The global-scale impacts of climate change on water resources and flooding under new climate and socio-economic scenarios

This paper presents a preliminary assessment of the relative effects of rate of climate change (four Representative Concentration Pathways - RCPs), assumed future population (five Shared Socio-economic Pathways - SSPs), and pattern of climate change (19 CMIP5 climate models) on regional and global exposure to water resources stress and river flooding. Uncertainty in projected future impacts of climate change on exposure to water stress and river flooding is dominated by uncertainty in the projected spatial and seasonal pattern of change in climate. There is little clear difference in impact between RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP6.0 in 2050, and between RCP4.5 and RCP6.0 in 2080. Impacts under RCP8.5 are greater than under the other RCPs in 2050 and 2080. For a given RCP, there is a difference in the absolute numbers of people exposed to increased water resources stress or increased river flood frequency between the five SSPs. With the ‘middle-of-the-road’ SSP2, climate change by 2050 would increase exposure to water resources stress for between approximately 920 and 3,400 million people under the highest RCP, and increase exposure to river flood risk for between 100 and 580 million people. Under RCP2.6, exposure to increased water scarcity would be reduced in 2050 by 22-24 %, compared to impacts under the RCP8.5, and exposure to increased flood frequency would be reduced by around 16 %. The implications of climate change for actual future losses and adaptation depend not only on the numbers of people exposed to changes in risk, but also on the qualitative characteristics of future worlds as described in the different SSPs. The difference in ‘actual’ impact between SSPs will therefore be greater than the differences in numbers of people exposed to impact.     

气候变化情景下中国乡村振兴核心区人口预估及在干旱灾害影响评估中的应用

根据IPCC提出的共享社会经济路径(SSPs),本文以中国14个乡村振兴核心区为研究区,结合中国当前人口特征设定不同SSPs路径下本地化人口预估参数,采用人口—发展—环境(PDE)模型,预估2020～2040年人口变化特征.结合SSPs-RCPs情景下多模式的干旱评估结果,探讨未来乡村振兴核心区干旱暴露人口较基准期(1...     

未来气候变化背景下我国橡胶树寒害事件的变化特征

利用1981—2010年历史气象数据和2031—2060年（RCP2.6和RCP8.5）气候情景数据,根据橡胶寒害等级指标,结合插值分析、提取分析和地图代数等空间分析方法,研究在未来气候情景下我国橡胶树寒害事件的变化特征。结果表明：(1) RCP2.6和RCP8.5气候情景下2031—2060年我国橡胶种植适宜区基本呈现寒害发生降低的趋势,其中次适宜区（III）和局部可植区（IV）的降低幅度较为明显,有向高一等级适宜区转化的趋势。(2)我国橡胶树寒害中心的纬度,由1981—2010年的22.5°~23.5°N向北移动至2031—2060年RCP2.6情景下的24.0°~24.5°N和RCP8.5情景下的23.5°~24.0°N。(3) 2种气候情景下,2031—2060年我国海南、广西、广东、福建等植胶区橡胶树寒害发生概率（较基准时段1981—2010年）主要呈现降低趋势,云南植胶区在2种气候情景下有明显的差异,表现为RCP2.6情景下,轻度和特重寒害呈现降低趋势,中度和重度寒害呈现增加趋势;RCP8.5情景下,轻度和重度寒害呈现降低趋势,中度和特重寒害呈现增加趋势。(4)对比2种气候情景较基准时段的变化情况,RCP2.6情景对橡胶树轻度和特重寒害影响较大,RCP8.5情景对橡胶树中度和重度寒害影响较大。     

The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy,land use,and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview

This paper presents the overview of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and their energy, land use, and emissions implications. The SSPs are part of a new scenario framework, established by the climate change research community in order to facilitate the integrated analysis of future climate impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation, and mitigation. The pathways were developed over the last years as a joint community effort and describe plausible major global developments that together would lead in the future to different challenges for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The SSPs are based on five narratives describing alternative socio-economic developments, including sustainable development, regional rivalry, inequality, fossil-fueled development, and middle-of-the-road development. The long-term demographic and economic projections of the SSPs depict a wide uncertainty range consistent with the scenario literature. A multi-model approach was used for the elaboration of the energy, land-use and the emissions trajectories of SSP-based scenarios. The baseline scenarios lead to global energy consumption of 400–1200 EJ in 2100, and feature vastly different land-use dynamics, ranging from a possible reduction in cropland area up to a massive expansion by more than 700 million hectares by 2100. The associated annual CO₂ emissions of the baseline scenarios range from about 25 GtCO₂ to more than 120 GtCO₂ per year by 2100. With respect to mitigation, we find that associated costs strongly depend on three factors: (1) the policy assumptions, (2) the socio-economic narrative, and (3) the stringency of the target. The carbon price for reaching the target of 2.6 W/m² that is consistent with a temperature change limit of 2 °C, differs in our analysis thus by about a factor of three across the SSP marker scenarios. Moreover, many models could not reach this target from the SSPs with high mitigation challenges. While the SSPs were designed to represent different mitigation and adaptation challenges, the resulting narratives and quantifications span a wide range of different futures broadly representative of the current literature. This allows their subsequent use and development in new assessments and research projects. Critical next steps for the community scenario process will, among others, involve regional and sectoral extensions, further elaboration of the adaptation and impacts dimension, as well as employing the SSP scenarios with the new generation of earth system models as part of the 6th climate model intercomparison project (CMIP6).     

RCP 8.5��A scenario of comparatively high greenhouse gas emissions

This paper summarizes the main characteristics of the RCP8.5 scenario. The RCP8.5 combines assumptions about high population and relatively slow income growth with modest rates of technological change and energy intensity improvements, leading in the long term to high energy demand and GHG emissions in absence of climate change policies. Compared to the total set of Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), RCP8.5 thus corresponds to the pathway with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. Using the IIASA Integrated Assessment Framework and the MESSAGE model for the development of the RCP8.5, we focus in this paper on two important extensions compared to earlier scenarios: 1) the development of spatially explicit air pollution projections, and 2) enhancements in the land-use and land-cover change projections. In addition, we explore scenario variants that use RCP8.5 as a baseline, and assume different degrees of greenhouse gas mitigation policies to reduce radiative forcing. Based on our modeling framework, we find it technically possible to limit forcing from RCP8.5 to lower levels comparable to the other RCPs (2.6 to 6 W/m²). Our scenario analysis further indicates that climate policy-induced changes of global energy supply and demand may lead to significant co-benefits for other policy priorities, such as local air pollution.     

Enhancing the relevance of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways for climate change impacts,adaptation and vulnerability research

This paper discusses the role and relevance of the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and the new scenarios that combine SSPs with representative concentration pathways (RCPs) for climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability (IAV) research. It first provides an overview of uses of social–environmental scenarios in IAV studies and identifies the main shortcomings of earlier such scenarios. Second, the paper elaborates on two aspects of the SSPs and new scenarios that would improve their usefulness for IAV studies compared to earlier scenario sets: (i) enhancing their applicability while retaining coherence across spatial scales, and (ii) adding indicators of importance for projecting vulnerability. The paper therefore presents an agenda for future research, recommending that SSPs incorporate not only the standard variables of population and gross domestic product, but also indicators such as income distribution, spatial population, human health and governance.     

A new scenario framework for climate change research: the concept of shared socioeconomic pathways

The new scenario framework for climate change research envisions combining pathways of future radiative forcing and their associated climate changes with alternative pathways of socioeconomic development in order to carry out research on climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation. Here we propose a conceptual framework for how to define and develop a set of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) for use within the scenario framework. We define SSPs as reference pathways describing plausible alternative trends in the evolution of society and ecosystems over a century timescale, in the absence of climate change or climate policies. We introduce the concept of a space of challenges to adaptation and to mitigation that should be spanned by the SSPs, and discuss how particular trends in social, economic, and environmental development could be combined to produce such outcomes. A comparison to the narratives from the scenarios developed in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) illustrates how a starting point for developing SSPs can be defined. We suggest initial development of a set of basic SSPs that could then be extended to meet more specific purposes, and envision a process of application of basic and extended SSPs that would be iterative and potentially lead to modification of the original SSPs themselves.     

Multi-model assessment of global hydropower and cooling water discharge potential under climate change

Worldwide, 98% of total electricity is currently produced by thermoelectric power and hydropower. Climate change is expected to directly impact electricity supply, in terms of both water availability for hydropower generation and cooling water usage for thermoelectric power. Improved understanding of how climate change may impact the availability and temperature of water resources is therefore of major importance. Here we use a multi-model ensemble to show the potential impacts of climate change on global hydropower and cooling water discharge potential. For the first time, combined projections of streamflow and water temperature were produced with three global hydrological models (GHMs) to account for uncertainties in the structure and parametrization of these GHMs in both water availability and water temperature. The GHMs were forced with bias-corrected output of five general circulation models (GCMs) for both the lowest and highest representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The ensemble projections of streamflow and water temperature were then used to quantify impacts on gross hydropower potential and cooling water discharge capacity of rivers worldwide. We show that global gross hydropower potential is expected to increase between +2.4% (GCM-GHM ensemble mean for RCP 2.6) and +6.3% (RCP 8.5) for the 2080s compared to 1971–2000. The strongest increases in hydropower potential are expected for Central Africa, India, central Asia and the northern high-latitudes, with 18–33% of the world population living in these areas by the 2080s. Global mean cooling water discharge capacity is projected to decrease by 4.5-15% (2080s). The largest reductions are found for the United States, Europe, eastern Asia, and southern parts of South America, Africa and Australia, where strong water temperature increases are projected combined with reductions in mean annual streamflow. These regions are expected to affect 11–14% (for RCP2.6 and the shared socio-economic pathway (SSP)1, SSP2, SSP4) and 41–51% (RCP8.5–SSP3, SSP5) of the world population by the 2080s.     

气候系统模式FGOALS-s2对南半球气候的模拟和预估

针对参加“国际耦合模式比较计划”(CMIP5)的IAP/LASG气候系统模式FGOALS-s2,评估了其对南半球气候平均态的模拟能力,在此基础上,预估了未来不同“典型浓度路径”(RCPs)情景下南半球气候的变化特征.对20世纪历史气候模拟结果的分析表明,模式能够合理再现南半球大气环流气候态分布特征,包括6～8月平均(JJA)南半球双西风急流现象,只是模拟的北支急流偏弱、南支急流偏强.未来气候预估试验中,不同RCPs情景下南半球温度变化以增暖为主要特征,陆地增温大于海洋,只有南大西洋—印度洋海盆存在局部变冷.综合四种不同情景,未来随着温室气体浓度的增加,南半球中纬度高压带将显著加强,绕极低压带将加深.降水呈现出增多的特征,12月到来年2月平均(DJF)强于JJA,海洋强于陆地,只有南印度洋和南太平洋中部局部降水减少.未来不同RCPs情景下,马斯克林高压表现出先减弱后增强的特征,而澳大利亚高压则呈现出先增强后减弱的特征.南极涛动(AAO)的变化表现为:RCP2.6和RCP4.5情景下AAO都表现为先增强后减弱,RCP6.0和RCP8.5情景下都为一致的增强趋势,这主要与四种情景中模拟的未来温度变化结构不同有关.例如在RCP6.0和RCP8.5情景下,南半球高纬高层温度增暖趋势小于中纬地区,使得经向温度梯度增大,中纬度西风加强,60°S以南位势高度减小,最终令AAO增强.     

Future growth patterns of world regions – A GDP scenario approach

Global GDP projections for the 21st century are needed for the exploration of long-term global environmental problems, in particular climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions as well as climate change mitigation and adaption capacities strongly depend on growth of per capita income. However, long-term economic projections are highly uncertain. This paper provides five new long-term economic scenarios as part of the newly developed shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) which represent a set of widely diverging narratives. A method of GDP scenario building is presented that is based on assumptions about technological progress, and human and physical capital formation as major drivers of long-term GDP per capita growth. The impact of these drivers differs significantly between different shared socio-economic pathways and is traced back to the underlying narratives and the associated population and education scenarios. In a highly fragmented world, technological and knowledge spillovers are low. Hence, the growth impact of technological progress and human capital is comparatively low, and per capita income diverges between world regions. These factors play a much larger role in globalization scenarios, leading to higher economic growth and stronger convergence between world regions. At the global average, per capita GDP is projected to grow annually in a range between 1.0% (SSP3) and 2.8% (SSP5) from 2010 to 2100. While this covers a large portion of variety in future global economic growth projections, plausible lower and higher growth projections may still be conceivable. The GDP projections are put into the context of historic patterns of economic growth (stylized facts), and their sensitivity to key assumptions is explored.     

SSP“双碳”路径下赣江流域径流变化趋势

根据共享社会经济情景（SSPs）分为“双碳”路径（SSP1-1.9、SSP1-2.6、SSP2-4.5、SSP4-3.4、SSP4-6.0）和“高碳”路径（SSP3-7.0、SSP5-8.5)。在碳达峰（2028—2032年）和碳中和（2058—2062年）两个时期,采用5个气候模式,7个情景驱动SWAT水文模型,分析赣江流域径流演变特征,主要结论如下：1961—2017年赣江流域观测到的年均气温以0.17℃/(10 a)的速率呈显著上升趋势（p<0.01),降水以17 mm/(10 a)的速率呈不显著上升。“双碳”和“高碳”路径下,2021—2100年赣江流域均呈现暖湿态,气温持续变暖,降水有所增加;碳达峰、碳中和时期,“双碳”路径下年径流呈现增加趋势;“双碳”路径下,月径流在汛期呈现增加趋势,枯水期在SSP1-1.9、SSP1-2.6、SSP2-4.5、SSP4-3.4下呈现增加趋势,在SSP4-6.0下呈现减少趋势。“双碳”路径下极端水文事件强度将可能小于“高碳”路径。     

Climate change in the 21st century simulated by HadGEM2-AO under representative concentration pathways

We present climate responses of Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) using the coupled climate model HadGEM2-AO for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5). The RCPs are selected as standard scenarios for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report and these scenarios include time paths for emissions and concentrations of greenhouse gas and aerosols and land-use/land cover. The global average warming and precipitation increases for the last 20 years of the 21st century relative to the period 1986-2005 are +1.1°C/+2.1% for RCP2.6, +2.4°C/+4.0% for RCP4.5, +2.5°C/+3.3% for RCP6.0 and +4.1°C/+4.6% for RCP8.5, respectively. The climate response on RCP 2.6 scenario meets the UN Copenhagen Accord to limit global warming within two degrees at the end of 21st century, the mitigation effect is about 3°C between RCP2.6 and RCP8.5. The projected precipitation changes over the 21st century are expected to increase in tropical regions and at high latitudes, and decrease in subtropical regions associated with projected poleward expansions of the Hadley cell. Total soil moisture change is projected to decrease in northern hemisphere high latitudes and increase in central Africa and Asia whereas near-surface soil moisture tends to decrease in most areas according to the warming and evaporation increase. The trend and magnitude of future climate extremes are also projected to increase in proportion to radiative forcing of RCPs. For RCP 8.5, at the end of the summer season the Arctic is projected to be free of sea ice.     

未来气候变化对东北玉米品种布局的影响

为探求未来气候变化对我国东北玉米品种布局的影响,基于玉米生产潜力和气候资源利用率,结合区域气候模式输出的2011—2099年RCP_4.5,RCP_8.5两种气候背景气象资料和1961—2010年我国东北地区91个气象站的观测数据,分析了未来气候变化情况下,东北玉米品种布局、生产潜力、气候资源利用率的时空变化。结果表明:未来东北地区玉米可种植边界北移东扩,南部为晚熟品种,新扩展区域以早熟品种为主,不能种植区域减少。未来玉米生产潜力为南高北低,增加速率均高于历史情景,水分适宜度最低,而历史情景下温度是胁迫玉米生产的关键因子。未来东北玉米对气候资源利用率整体下降,其中RCP8.5情景利用率最低。     

基于CMIP5耦合气候模式的1.5℃和2℃升温阈值出现时间研究

利用CMIP5耦合气候模式的模拟结果,分析了不同排放情景下1.5℃和2℃升温阈值出现的时间。多模式集合平均结果表明：RCP2.6、RCP4.5和RCP8.5排放情景下,全球地表温度将分别在2029年、2028年和2025年达到1.5℃升温阈值;RCP2.6情景下直至21世纪末期都未达到2℃升温阈值,RCP4.5和RCP8.5排放情景下达到2℃升温阈值的时间分别为2048年和2040年。伴随着排放情景的升高,完成从1.5℃升温阈值到2℃升温阈值所需要的时间缩短。区域尺度上,达到同一升温阈值的时间主要表现为陆地比海洋早,且陆地对排放情景差异的敏感性相对较差,而海洋达到升温阈值的时间则随着排放情景的升高而明显提前。中国达到相应升温阈值的时间要早于全球,且以东北和西北地区出现的时间最早。     

Land-use futures in the shared socio-economic pathways

In the future, the land system will be facing new intersecting challenges. While food demand, especially for resource-intensive livestock based commodities, is expected to increase, the terrestrial system has large potentials for climate change mitigation through improved agricultural management, providing biomass for bioenergy, and conserving or even enhancing carbon stocks of ecosystems. However, uncertainties in future socio-economic land use drivers may result in very different land-use dynamics and consequences for land-based ecosystem services. This is the first study with a systematic interpretation of the Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs) in terms of possible land-use changes and their consequences for the agricultural system, food provision and prices as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, five alternative Integrated Assessment Models with distinctive land-use modules have been used for the translation of the SSP narratives into quantitative projections. The model results reflect the general storylines of the SSPs and indicate a broad range of potential land-use futures with global agricultural land of 4900 mio ha in 2005 decreasing by 743 mio ha until 2100 at the lower (SSP1) and increasing by 1080 mio ha (SSP3) at the upper end. Greenhouse gas emissions from land use and land use change, as a direct outcome of these diverse land-use dynamics, and agricultural production systems differ strongly across SSPs (e.g. cumulative land use change emissions between 2005 and 2100 range from −54 to 402 Gt CO₂). The inclusion of land-based mitigation efforts, particularly those in the most ambitious mitigation scenarios, further broadens the range of potential land futures and can strongly affect greenhouse gas dynamics and food prices. In general, it can be concluded that low demand for agricultural commodities, rapid growth in agricultural productivity and globalized trade, all most pronounced in a SSP1 world, have the potential to enhance the extent of natural ecosystems, lead to lowest greenhouse gas emissions from the land system and decrease food prices over time. The SSP-based land use pathways presented in this paper aim at supporting future climate research and provide the basis for further regional integrated assessments, biodiversity research and climate impact analysis.