Regional impacts poorly constrained by climate sensitivity

Swaminathan, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5853-2673, Schewe, J., Walton, J., Zimmermann, K., Jones, C., Betts, R., Burton, C., Jones, C., Mengel, M., Reyer, C., Turner, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0642-6876 and Weigel, K. (2024) Regional impacts poorly constrained by climate sensitivity. Earth's Future, 12 (12). e2024EF004901. ISSN 2328-4277 doi: 10.1029/2024EF004901

Abstract/Summary

Climate risk assessments must account for a wide range of possible futures, so scientists often use simulations made by numerous global climate models to explore potential changes in regional climates and their impacts. Some of the latest-generation models have high effective climate sensitivities (EffCS). It has been argued these “hot” models are unrealistic and should therefore be excluded from analyses of climate change impacts. Whether this would improve regional impact assessments, or make them worse, is unclear. Here we show there is no universal relationship between EffCS and projected changes in a number of important climatic drivers of regional impacts. Analysing heavy rainfall events, meteorological drought, and fire weather in different regions, we find little or no significant correlation with EffCS for most regions and climatic drivers. Even when a correlation is found, internal variability and processes unrelated to EffCS have similar effects on projected changes in the climatic drivers as EffCS. Model selection based solely on EffCS appears to be unjustified and may neglect realistic impacts, leading to an underestimation of climate risks.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/119178
Identification Number/DOI	10.1029/2024EF004901
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > NCAS Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Wiley
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item