Climatic Change

Bohman, Anna; Glaas, Erik; Klein, Johannes; Landauer, Mia; Neset, Tina-Simone; Linnér, Björn-Ola; Juhola, Sirkku

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2237-8

This essay discusses the concept of usefulness of research for climate change adaptation. Based on prior research and stakeholder interactions with policymakers and practitioners in the Nordic countries, we contend that critical issues related to the usefulness of adaptation research seem less associated with content (i.e. research outputs), but rather centre around the efforts made to design and communicate research, that is, to put research at the service of society and make the case for adaptation on the political agenda. This, we argue, to some extent mirrors the situation and political context in the Nordic countries, where adaptation in many locations still is an issue in its infancy, not firmly established on the political agendas, and where working procedures are not yet institutionally settled. In this context, science is considered and sometimes used as a discursive tool to make the case for adaptation. Based on the calls for research that inspires, raises hope and helps to raise the issue of adaptation on the political agendas, we elaborate the role of honest issue advocates for researchers in the field of adaptation science.

Alcaraz, Olga; Buenestado, Pablo; Escribano, Beatriz; Sureda, Bàrbara; Turon, Albert; Xercavins, Josep

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2224-0

In this paper, a model for the distribution of the Global Carbon Budget between the countries of the world is presented. The model is based on the criteria of equity while also taking into account the different historical responsibilities. The Global Carbon Budget corresponds to the quantity of carbon dioxide emissions that can still be released into the atmosphere while maintaining the increase in the average earth surface temperature below 2 °C, and it is therefore compatible with the long-term objective defined in the Paris Agreement. The results of applying the model are shown both for the 15 emitters that currently top the ranking for world emissions as well as for the other countries, which are grouped together in three main groups: Other African, Other Latin American and Caribbean, and the Rest of the World. Mitigation curves compatible with the carbon budget allocated to the different countries are presented. When comparing each emitter’s historical emissions for the period 1971–2010 with the proposed distribution for the period 2011–2050 obtained using the model, it can be seen that developed countries must face the future with a greatly reduced carbon budget, whereas developing countries can make use of a carbon budget that is higher than their cumulative historical emissions. Finally, there is a discussion about how a model with these characteristics could be useful when implementing the Paris Agreement.

Farjam, Mike; Nikolaychuk, Olexandr; Bravo, Giangiacomo

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2228-9

Effective communication of risks involved in the climate change discussion is crucial and despite ambitious protection policies, the possibility of irreversible consequences actually occurring can only be diminished but never ruled out completely. We present a laboratory experiment that studies how residual risk of failure of climate change policies affects willingness to contribute to such policies. Despite prevailing views on people’s risk aversion, we found that contributions were higher at least in the final part of treatments including a residual risk. We interpret this as the product of a psychological process where residual risk puts participants into an ”alarm mode,” keeping their contributions high. We discuss the broad practical implications this might have on the real-world communication of climate change.

Drummond, Aaron; Hall, Lauren; Sauer, James; Palmer, Matthew

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2230-2

Social scientists and science communicators are concerned about the apparent discrepancy between the scientific consensus on climate change (Anderegg et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci 107:12107–12109, 2010; Doran and Zimmerman EOS Trans Am Geophys Union 90:22–3, 2009) and the general public’s views (Knight Environ Sociol 2:101–113, 2016; Lee et al. Nat Clim Chang 5:1014–1020, 2015). It is reasoned that increased public awareness and perceived threat of climate change may pressure governments to enact policy to counteract climate change (e.g. setting stringent carbon emissions targets). Despite a logical link between public awareness and government-set emissions targets, this relationship remains untested. We examined the relationship between public awareness about and perceived threat of climate change and governmental emissions targets across 71 countries and 1 region. We found a positive association between the proportions of a country’s population that are aware of climate change and the unconditional emissions reduction targets set by that country in the Paris Agreement (Rogelj et al. Nature 534:631–639, 2016). However, the proportion of people in a country who perceive climate change as a personal threat was not associated with higher emissions reduction targets. Our results suggest that public awareness may be an important part of garnering the public support required for policies designed to mitigate climate change to succeed.

Boussalis, Constantine; Coan, Travis; Holman, Mirya

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2223-1

Cities in the USA engage in action on climate change, even as the federal government remains resistant to comprehensive climate policy. While experts generally agree that local level adaptation and mitigation policies are critical to avoiding the worst climate impacts, the degree to which cities communicate climate change issues to their constituents has yet to be fully explored. In this article, we evaluate how US cities communicate climate change-related issues, problems, and policies. We use a computer-assisted approach to evaluate climate change efforts by cities by examining the full text of press releases of 82 large cities in the USA. We first identify who discusses climate change, finding that many large cities in the USA address climate change in their public communication. Second, we examine the content of these discussions. Many cities discuss weather-related concerns in conjunction with broad collaborative efforts to address global warming, while city-based policy discussions focus more on energy and transportation efforts. Third, we evaluate the local factors associated with these discussions. We find that the city’s climate vulnerability is particularly influential in shaping the level and timing of climatic communication.

Kopytko, Natalie; Pruneddu, Alessio

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2229-8

The agri-food sector must adapt to changes in climate variability, while also helping to mitigate climate change. Measures termed ‘triple-win’ mitigate and adapt to climate change, while also improving soil health, thereby increasing yields. These measures might appear to be the easiest to implement, but in practice, barriers prevent full realisation. This study aims to move beyond previous research efforts that identify and categorise barriers by (i) revealing hidden barriers, (ii) understanding the interactions between barriers and (iii) exploring ways to address barriers. A case study focusing on crop rotation as a triple-win strategy in Ukraine demonstrates how a participant-driven iterative research approach can achieve these objectives. During semi-structured interviews with farmers and stakeholders, crop rotation emerged as an area of considerable dissensus with stakeholders commonly citing the greedy behaviour of producers as the problem. Further discussion indicated that the political economy of Ukraine caused financial constraints for producers and Q methodology allowed for additional clarity on the opposing views of crop rotation. Three factors emerged: producer insecurity, national insecurity and business insecurity. These three perspectives reveal contrasting priorities with producer insecurity and business insecurity concerned with the conditions under which producers must operate, while national insecurity has a focus on improving agricultural production to benefit the nation. Consensus statements across all factors could provide first steps to addressing barriers and an opportunity to open discussions amongst stakeholders. Finally, barriers arising from political processes demonstrate that climate policy needs to be integrated with other sector-specific policy decisions.

Belyaeva, Maria; Bokusheva, Raushan

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2221-3

Using recent advances in statistical crop yield modelling and a unique dataset consisting of yield time series for Russian regions over the period from 1955 to 2012, the study investigates the potential impact of climate change (CC) on the productivity of the three most important grains. Holding current grain growing areas fixed, the aggregate productivity of the three grains is predicted to decrease by 6.7% in 2046–2065 and increase by 2.6% in 2081–2100 compared to 1971–2000 under the most optimistic representative emission concentration pathway (RCP). Based on the projections for the three other RCPs, the aggregate productivity of the three studied crops is assessed to decrease by 18.0, 7.9 and 26.0% in the medium term and by 31.2, 25.9 and 55.4% by the end of the century. Our results indicate that CC might have a positive effect on winter wheat, spring wheat and spring barley productivity in a number of regions in the Northern and Siberian parts of Russia. However, due to the highly damaging CC impact on grain production in the most productive regions located in the South of the country, the overall impact tends to be negative. Therefore, a shift of agricultural production to the Northern regions of the country could reduce the negative impact of CC on grain production only to a limited extent. More vigorous adaptation measures are required to maintain current grain production volumes in Russia under CC.

Hovenden, Mark; Newton, Paul

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2227-x

Correctly estimating the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2) on biomass production is paramount for accurately projecting agricultural productivity, global carbon balances and climate changes. Plant physiology suggests that eCO2 should result in a strongly positive CO2 fertilisation effect (CFE) via positive effects on photosynthesis and water use efficiency. However, the CFE in CO2 experiments is often constrained because of other factors of which rainfall pattern is particularly important. Here, we apply a generally applicable, empirically derived relationship between the CFE and an index of seasonal rainfall balance (SRB), to identify how historical and projected future rainfall patterns modify the CFE using 25 native grassland sites in south-eastern (SE) Australia as a test case. We found that historical and projected rainfall produced SRBs that varied widely from year-to-year resulting in a CFE that was only positive in about 40% of years, with no or even negative biomass responses in the remainder of years; a finding that is in marked contrast to other studies that have not taken account of relationships between rainfall seasonality and plant responses to CO2. The dependence of the CFE on SRB also means that using the CFE from a specific eCO2 experiment can be misleading as the result will be heavily influenced by the SRB during the period of experimentation but this problem can be avoided by using a robust general relationship of the kind used in this study. Generalisations of grassland biomass responses to the rising CO2 concentration are contextual in terms of the variability in precipitation seasonality; as such, this provides a new lens by which to view aboveground responses to the rising CO2 concentration and fosters a novel approach for cross-site comparisons among experiments.

Vitasse, Yann; Rebetez, Martine

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2234-y

Spring frosts are feared by farmers, fruit growers, and wine growers as they can cause significant damage to crops when they occur during the development of the plants. In the second half of April 2017, following a very warm period that had caused premature vegetation growth, a cold air mass from the Arctic penetrated central and western Europe, causing severe damage to natural and cultivated vegetation over broad areas. Here, we analyze how exceptional this event was in Switzerland and Germany in relation to the accumulated growing degree days (GDD), used as a proxy for plant phenology advancement. Although this damaging frost was not the latest on record in terms of calendar days, our results show that it was, in some regions, unprecedented in relation to the accumulated warmth during the preceding period, at least since the beginning of instrumental temperature records (1864). Our results also highlight how global warming has considerably increased the number of days with mean temperature above 5 °C in late winter and early spring, especially since 1970 (+ 16.8 ± 4.7 °C days decade−1). However, in spite of earlier spring phenology due to climate warming, our results suggest that the risk of damaging frost events to vegetation has remained unchanged over the last 150 years in lowlands of Switzerland and Germany, due to the concurring earlier occurrence of the last potentially damaging frosts (about − 20 days since 1864). Our analyses reveal therefore that the April 2017 damaging frost was a true outlier in terms of risk of frost damage to plants.

Jonko, Alexandra; Urban, Nathan; Nadiga, Balu

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2232-0

Despite decades of research, large multi-model uncertainty remains about the Earth’s equilibrium climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide forcing as inferred from state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs). Statistical treatments of multi-model uncertainties are often limited to simple ESM averaging approaches. Sometimes models are weighted by how well they reproduce historical climate observations. Here, we propose a novel approach to multi-model combination and uncertainty quantification. Rather than averaging a discrete set of models, our approach samples from a continuous distribution over a reduced space of simple model parameters. We fit the free parameters of a reduced-order climate model to the output of each member of the multi-model ensemble. The reduced-order parameter estimates are then combined using a hierarchical Bayesian statistical model. The result is a multi-model distribution of reduced-model parameters, including climate sensitivity. In effect, the multi-model uncertainty problem within an ensemble of ESMs is converted to a parametric uncertainty problem within a reduced model. The multi-model distribution can then be updated with observational data, combining two independent lines of evidence. We apply this approach to 24 model simulations of global surface temperature and net top-of-atmosphere radiation response to abrupt quadrupling of carbon dioxide, and four historical temperature data sets. Our reduced order model is a 2-layer energy balance model. We present probability distributions of climate sensitivity based on (1) the multi-model ensemble alone and (2) the multi-model ensemble and observations.

Lausier, Anne; Jain, Shaleen

2018 Climatic Change

doi: 10.1007/s10584-018-2225-z

Comprehensive characterization of diversity in global patterns of precipitation variability and change is an important starting point for climate adaptation and resilience assessments. Capturing the nature of precipitation probability distribution functions (PDF) is critical for assessing variability and change. Conventional linear regression-based analyses assume that slope coefficients for the wet and dry tails of the PDF are consonant with the conditional mean trend. This assumption is not always borne out in the analyses of historical records. Given the relationship between sea surface temperature (SST) and precipitation, recent trends in global SST complicate interpretations of precipitation variability and risk. In this study, changes in the PDF of annual precipitation (1951–2011) at the global river basin scale were analyzed using quantile regression (QR). QR is a flexible approach allowing for the assessment of precipitation variability conditioned on the leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) patterns of global SST that reflect El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation. To this end, the framework presented (a) offers a characterization of the entire PDF and its sensitivity to the leading modes of SST variability, (b) captures a range of responses in the PDF including asymmetries, (c) highlights regions likely to experience higher risks of precipitation excesses and deficits and inter-annual variability, and (d) offers an approach for quantifying risk across specified quantiles. Results show asymmetric responses in the PDF in all regions of the world, either in single or both tails. In one instance, QR detects a differential response to the leading patterns of SST in the Tana basin in eastern Africa, highlighting changes in variability as well as risk.