Climate Change Impacts Assessment Data and model information for Climate Change Impacts Assessment Researchers
Above image (Sarah Pittiglio and Guido Franco) shows the December 2000 surface air temperature from the GFDL CM2.1 historical (20C3M) simulation. The enlarged area shows the difference between the global model grid and the grid from Ed Maurer's downscaling over the California/Nevada region.	........................................................................

From Guido Franco, Program Manager:
Recognizing California's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, the Governor issued Executive Order S-03-05 on June 1, 2005 mandating the preparation of biennial science reports on the potential impacts of climate change on California and the identification of adaptation options. The Climate Action Team (CAT), headed by the Secretary for Environmental Protection, submits these reports to the Governor and the Legislature.

The first biennial CAT report was released in 2006. The report summarized major findings of the 2006 Climate Change Impacts Assessment which provided a valuable initial overview of climate impacts on key sectors in the state that are expected under alternative greenhouse gas emission scenarios.

The California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program is leading an effort to expand, improve and further develop the analysis of projected impacts under multiple climate change scenarios. The findings, based on more than 40 studies, will be presented in a Climate Change Impact Assessment.

The Climate Impact Assessment will build on the previous study to meet three goals:

• Improve the assessment of cliamte changes in the California region and associated impacts on key physical and biological indicators.
• Begin to translate these physical and biological impacts into sectoral economic impacts.
• Begin to develop and evaluate strategies for key sectors or regions for adapting to climate changes already underway.

The successful coordination and completion of such a large number of studies is a complex, intensive effort requiring the cooperation of many governmental and research entities.

A brief overview of the Climate Change Impacts Assessment was presented during the 4th Annual Research Conference on Climate Change, held in September 2007. Please click here to download the presentations on this topic.

For more information about the Climate Change Impact Assessment, please contact:

Dan Cayan Scripps Institution of Oceanography dcayan@ucsd.edu

Guido Franco California Energy Commission gfranco@energy.state.ca.us

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Useful links:

Slideshow used for 21 Nov 2007 WebEx conf call

Information about IPCC4 models

Information concerning models for the Janaury 2006 Secretary report to the Governor and State Legislature

Previous details of analyses over California

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The following six models have been chosen for analysis for the Scenarios report:

• GFDL CM2.1
• NCAR PCM1
• CNRM CM3
• MPI ECHAM5
• MIROC3.2 med
• NCAR CCSM3

The GFDL CM2.1 and NCAR PCM1 models were used for the first biennial CAT Report.

The simulations to be considered are:

• 20C3M: climate of the 20th century
• SRESA2: climate change simulation C02 850ppm max; self-reliance; population increases; economic growth slow
• SRESB1: climate change simulation CO2 550ppm max; global solutions; population peaks and steadies; service and information economy

These are the same simulations that were used for the first biennial CAT Report.

Click here for simulation data and information.

Please contact Mary Tyree with any questions:
mtyree@ucsd.edu
(858)822-1625