This paper discusses the role and relevance of the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and the new scenarios that combine SSPs with representative concentration pathways (RCPs) for climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability (IAV) research. It first provides an overview of uses of social environmental scenarios in IAV studies and identifies the main shortcomings of earlier such scenarios. Second, the paper elaborates on two aspects of the SSPs and new scenarios that would improve their usefulness for IAV studies compared to earlier scenario sets: (i) enhancing their applicability while retaining coherence across spatial scales, and (ii) adding indicators of importance for projecting vulnerability. The paper therefore presents an agenda for future research, recommending that SSPs incorporate not only the standard variables of population and gross domestic product, but also indicators such as income distribution, spatial population, human health and governance.
Ruijven, Bas van and Levy, Marc A. and Agrawal, Arun and Biermann, Frank and Birkmann, Joern and Carter, Timothy and Ebi, Kristie and Garschagen, Matthias and Jones, Bryan and Jones, Roger and Kemp-Benedict, Eric and Kok, Marcel and Kok, Kasper and Lemos, Maria C. and Lucas, Paul and Orlove, Ben and Pachauri, Shonali and Parris, Thomas M. and Patwardhan, Anand and Petersen, Arthur and Preston, Benjamin and Ribot, Jesse and Rothman, Dale Scott and Schweizer, Vanessa J., Enhancing the Relevance of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways for Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Research (September 18, 2013). Climatic Change, February 2014, Volume 122, Issue 3, pp 481-494, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2506162
Political Economy - Development: Environment eJournal
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