On 12 March 2014, the results of the EURO-CORDEX Initiative and the Representative Concentration Pathways were presented in Vienna in the conference room of WIFO to 25 participants from academia and public administration.
The aim of the event was to introduce these new datasets to the Austrian climate impact research community and to stimulate scientific discourse on the topic. In addition to a presentation section featuring talks by Ass. Prof. Andreas Gobiet (Wegener Center, KFU) and Dr Keywan Riahi (IIASA), participants had the opportunity to raise and discuss specific questions and concerns.
Ass. Prof. Andreas Gobiet coordinates an international collaboration of 27 research institutions that, within the framework of the EURO-CORDEX initiative, is developing climate scenarios for Europe at an unprecedented level of detail. These scenarios provide information on the most important expected changes through to the end of the 21st century — including extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, and heavy precipitation — and are intended to serve as a foundation for climate impact research across Europe.
These novel climate simulations also make use of the new Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), which, in contrast to the previously common SRES emissions scenarios, place the emphasis not on emissions but on the concentration and radiative forcing of greenhouse gases. One of these concentration pathways was developed under the leadership of Dr Keywan Riahi at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
More information can be found at the following links:
EURO-CORDEX: http://www.euro-cordex.net/
RCP Database: http://tntcat.iiasa.ac.at:8787/RcpDb/dsd?Action=htmlpage&page=welcome