Harvard Climate Seminar

Date: 

Wednesday, October 31, 2018, 12:00pm

Location: 

HUCE Seminar Room MCZ 440
Professor, Department of Enviornmental Systems Science
ETH Zurich, Land-Climate Dynamics
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
 
Climate extremes at 1.5°C vs 2°C global warming: The IPCC SR15 report and underlying evidence
 
In this presentation I will provide an overview on changes in climate extremes at 1.5°C vs 2°C global warming, as assessed in the recent IPCC special report on 1.5°C global warming (http://ipcc.ch/report/sr15/). In particular, I will address the differences in climate extremes that can be distinguished at these two warming levels, as well as associated impacts. Some impacts are irreversible when reaching a 2°C global warming, highlighting the importance of avoiding a possible overshoot in emissions trajectories towards this limit. I will also highlight how changes in extremes can be related to mean global warming, why regional hot extremes warm more than the global mean temperature, and the role of land processes and land use changes in these projections.
 
References:
IPCC, 2018: Global warming of 1.5°C - Summary for Policymakers (available from: http://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf)
Seneviratne, S.I., et al. 2018: The many possible climates from the Paris Agreement's aim of 1.5°C warming. Nature, 558, 41-49.
Seneviratne, S.I., et al. 2016: Allowable CO2 emissions based on regional and impact-related climate targets. Nature, 529, 477-483.
 
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