Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook 2023 released

The second Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook of the cluster of excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS) was released yesterday. An interdisciplinary team of 62 scientists integrated the latest research findings with the aim to explore which climate futures are possible and which are plausible. This is of particular interest in light of the goals set by the Paris Agreement. In total, ten social drivers and six climate system processes were analyzed. A team of scientists of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon were involved in the chapter on climate adaptation as well as in the review process.

As the already advanced climate change poses major challenges to many regions of the world, the topic of climate adaptation is getting more attention in the latest published Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook. Hereon scientists of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS) Tania Guillén Bolaños, Dr Peter Hoffmann, Dr Jo-Ting Huang-Lachmann, Dr Gaby S. Langendijk, Dr Cristobal Reveco and Dr Stefanie Trümper as well as Dr Corinna Schrum and Dr Johannes Pein of the Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling contributed to the Chapter 4 and the review process of the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook.

Graphic of the components of the integrated CLICCS Plausibility Framework from chapter 4 of the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook 2023. Graphic: Universität Hamburg/ CLICCS

Chapter 4 (“Towards a Sustainable Adaptation Plausibility Framework”) discusses opportunities for sustainable climate adaptation and presents a framework for assessing sustainable adaptation scenarios. In particular, the chapter considers the interlinkages between climate change mitigation and adaptation but also the synergies and trade-offs with regard to the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition to a typology to analyze the implementation of different climate adaptation measures, the chapter provides key examples for climate change adaptation coastal, urban and rural systems. Among others, the proposed framework for assessing the plausibility of sustainable adaptation scenarios aims to support the further development of science-based climate services and to facilitate efficient adaptation decisions.