Publications

Climate projections in the IPCC fifth assessment report (AR5) will be based on the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, which incorporates the latest versions of climate models and focuses on RCPs. This implies that by AR5 both models and scenarios will have changed, making a comparison with earlier literature challenging. To facilitate this comparison, we provide probabilistic climate projections of both SRES scenarios and RCPs in a single consistent framework.

Sound decisions in international climate policy depend on comprehensive and reliable emission data as well as accurate analysis and comparisons of policy proposals. In this paper the authors discuss three applications of the PRIMAP emissions module.

Aggregations of greenhouse gas mitigation pledges by countries are frequently used to indicate whether resulting global emissions in 2020 will be 'on track' to limit global temperature increase to below specific warming levels such as 1.5 or 2 °C. We find that historical emission levels aggregated from data that are officially reported by countries to the UNFCCC are lower than independent global emission estimates, such as the IPCC SRES scenarios.

This analysis demonstrates that the Copenhagen Accord and the pledges made under it represent a set of dissonant ambitions. Due to the limited level of ambition by 2020, the ability to limit emissions afterwards to pathways consistent with either the 2 or 1.5 °C goal is likely to become less feasible.

In the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report the global warming potentials were updated from those in the 1995 2nd Assessment Report. Here we explore using the updated GWPs to estimate the effects of the 2020 emissions targets on global warming.

This briefing paper examines the overall mitigation pledges made under the Copenhagen Accord against the perspective of limiting warming to either the 2°C or 1.5°C goals, and looks at which levels of mitigation levels are needed, before concluding with an initial discussion of the implications for Africa