A climate change index: Where climate change may be most prominent in the 21st century

This paper aims to present a single number which summarises different climatic conditions and is developed through an aggregated Climate Change Index (CCI).

"For political use, it is aggregated on a country level allowing for comparison with social and economic indicators that are only available on a country level. The CCI is composed of different temperature and precipitation indicators. We focus on climate change indicators and not on climate impact indicators as the former are closer to model data, depend on less assumptions and are less complex to communicate. Indicator calculations are based on multi model ensemble scenarios of the 21st century. The validity of the index is discussed in the light of existing scientific findings." (Baettig, Wild & Imboden, 2007)

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Method
  • Calculated climate indicators
  • Aggregation of selected climate indicators
  • Results and discussion
  • Individual climate indicators
  • Aggregated climate change index
  • Robustness of the climate change index
  • Limitations and further development
  • Summary and conclusion
  • References

Sources

Baettig, M. B., Wild, M., & Imboden, D. M. (2007). A climate change index: Where climate change may be most prominent in the 21st century.,34 (L01705), Geophysical Research Letters