Climate Impact Explorer

Objective(s)

The climate impact explorer aims to further advance scientific knowledge and understanding of climate impacts, and link policy and impact indicator projections on global, regional and national levels.

Short description

The Climate Impact Explorer offers in a very easy and for-free way graphs and maps on future scenarios up to 2100 for 30 economically and socially relevant indicators.

The climate impact explorer provides projections for future climate impacts at different warming levels and for several policy-relevant greenhouse gas emission scenarios. More than 30 different climate change or climate impact indicators can be selected, including e.g., annual expected damage from river floods, land fraction annually exposed to crop failures or fraction of population annually exposed to wildfires.

The users decide which impacts they want to explore, by selecting a country or region/province, an indicator and a scenario.

Free keywords

Climate risks and hazards, policy scenarios, mean air temperature change, economic damages, Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)

Readiness for use

Applications

The tool was launched in June 2021 after multiple rounds of stakeholder co-development and input. The tool experiences 200-1000 map loads per day and has been mainly used by financial consultancies, central banks, insurance institutions, academic researchers, and NGOs.

Input and bugs from users are regularly documented and the tool is updated accordingly.

Strengths and weaknesses, comparative added value to other similar tools

Strengths:
(+) Very easy to use : The tool is embedded in the browser directly, no login or download is required and it is very intuitive to handle because the user can select directly in drop-down menus, which country or region, which indicators and which scenario they want to apply to get data.
(+) Information transparency: For each of the indicators and scenarios, the reader directly sees what they entail, due to small descriptions directly in the drop-down menu. Data limitations are also addressed.
(+) Breaking down information: Tangibly preparing the data by generating graphs and maps, that change directly, when different input variables are selected.

Weaknesses:
(-) Within a region, the tool cannot specify different geographical landscapes (e.g., it does not differentiate between a valley or a coastal area). The interpretation depending on the terrain must be done by the user.
(-) This tool does not give insights into the effects of the different indicators, e.g. a strong rise in precipitation might be visible on the map, but not the linked risks and hazards that are region-specific. The risk assessment from the infrastructure and which adaptation measures make the most sense, is to be determined by the user.

Input(s)

Nothing (information is integrated in the tool)

Output(s)

The output consists of graphs of time series and maps, that visualise the modelling results.

This information is provided at the country level, for distinctive global warming levels (1.5°C, 2°C, 2.5°C, and 3°C).
The calculations are based on the latest science, including international climate and climate impact modelling initiatives such as CMIP and ISIMIP. For more information about the modelling choices that run in the background and the input data sources, please consult the methodology information.  

Replicability: Cost/effort for (new) usage

n/a (This tool already covers all the different regions in European countries)

Materials or other support available

Support is provided for Methodological information, for problems or suggestions, there is a survey form, and general feedback can be provided via the Climate Impact Explorer Surveyhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_5KGM3DhDZq5FyqgVqgcGeHtl6IbZJmjwb1VA6Ps1f1qtWw/viewform. Additional information on the selected indicator and limitations of the analysis are provided for each projection (below the map).

Website and maintenance

The tool is accessible via the project website: Climate Analytics — Climate Impact Explorer

Contact

E-mail to:
climate.impact.explorer@climateanalytics.org or, for general feedback, there is the Climate Impact Explorer Survey

Associated project(s)

The Climate Impact Explorer was developed by Climate Analytics, together with Flavio Gortana, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and ETH Zürich. Its development was supported by ClimateWorks Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies in the context of a collaboration with the Network for Greening the Financial System, as well as the German Ministry for Education and Research.