A Strategy for Climate Change Stabilization Experiments

Much progress has been made in recent years to improve climate modeling, but a failure to fully incorporate variables such as the carbon cycle prevent the accurate projection of stabilization scenarios. As a result, a next-generation of climate models is needed. This article lays out a roadmap for a new stage of climate modeling efforts, suggesting that two timeframes be addressed�near-term (2005-2030) and long-term (2005-2100). The near-term would disregard the effects of the carbon cycle and use already committed to CO2 levels to gauge regional impacts. The long-term models would assess climate outcomes on the basis of potential policy options and incorporate carbon cycle feedbacks through the use of three different experiments.

Suggested citation:

Hibbard, Kathy A., Gerald A. Meehl, Peter M. Cox, and Pierre Friedlingstein. 2007. A Strategy for Climate Change Stabilization Experiments. EOS: Vol. 88, No. 20, 15 May 2007.