High-end Climate Change in Europe

In 2013, the European Commission funded three major projects to assess climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability for “high-end scenarios” - defined as global warming exceeding 2°C relative to pre-industrial. These projects are:

• HELIX (High-End cLimate Impacts and eXtreme);
• IMPRESSIONS (IMPacts and REsponses from highend Scenarios: Strategies for Innovative SolutiONS)
• RISES-AM (Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high-End Scenarios - Adaptation and Mitigation),

This report presents the findings of these three projects as of early 2017. Drawing on a very wide range of expertise from many disciplines in both the natural and social sciences, the researchers have developed new understanding of the implications and risks of exceeding 2°C, the challenges and opportunities of adaptation to such a warmer world, and the extent to which risks can be reduced if warming is held as close as possible to 1.5°C. Researchers have examined impacts and adaptation relevant to a number of areas addressed by policy: food, freshwater, forestry, coastal protection, nature conservation, urban areas and infrastructure, human health and foreign policy. They have also considered cross-cutting impacts, challenges and opportunities for transformational change as a response to multiple, interacting risks.