On 12 March 2014, both the results of the EURO-CORDEX initiative and the Representative Concentration Pathways for twenty-five participants from the fields of science and administration were presented in the WIFO boardroom in Vienna.
The aim of the event was to introduce the Austrian climate impact research community to these new datasets and to prompt scientific discourse. In addition to a presentation section with lectures by Ass. Prof. Andreas Gobiet (Wegener Center, University of Graz) and Dr. Keywan Riahi (IIASA), the participants also had the opportunity to address and discuss specific issues and concerns.
Ass. Prof. Andreas Gobiet coordinates an international cooperation of twenty-seven research institutions which develops unprecedentedly detailed climate scenarios for Europe as part of the EURO-CORDEX initiative. They provide information on the most important changes to be expected until the end of the 21st century – including extreme weather events, such as droughts, heat waves, and heavy precipitation. They are, moreover, meant to serve as a basis for climate impact research in Europe.
These innovative climate simulations use the new Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), which, in contrast to the previously common SRES emission scenarios, do not focus on emissions but on the concentration and radiative forcing of greenhouse gases. One of these concentration pathways was developed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis under the direction of Dr. med. Keywan Riahi.