A report produced from the second Scenarios Forum held in June 2022 in Laxenburg, Austria is now out. Future Earth partnered for the forum, which had the goal of bringing together the diverse set of communities using or developing scenarios in climate change and sustainability analysis to exchange experiences, ideas, and lessons learned; identify opportunities for synergies and collaboration between communities; reflect on the use of scenarios; and identify knowledge gaps for future research.

The Scenarios Forum 2022 brought together over 500 researchers onsite and online to share experiences to date on progress toward this goal. The Forum confirmed that the SSP-RCP framework is being widely and increasingly used across a variety of research communities and assessment processes in the climate and biodiversity communities. Key discussions on future needs during the Scenarios Forum included the need for expansion of the solution space to facilitate a wider diversity of response strategies, broadening the labeling of scenarios to facilitate connection to other communities, initiating a discussion on high-end community scenarios and the tension in the scenarios framework between providing building-blocks for scientists and identifying key community-level scenarios.

“The advances being made in the modelling and scenarios research community continue to provide valuable directions on reaching a more sustainable future. Scenarios Forum 2022 presented a vibrant medium for discussing these advances as well as opportunities,” says Siir Kilkis, member of Future Earth’s Urban Knowledge-Action Network. “Our climate future and societies require much more guidance from this research community in connecting knowledge and action, including climate action in urban areas. Taking these as top priorities, we can utilize a greater policy space of integrated action and shift directions more swiftly in times it is needed urgently.”

Two of Future Earth Global Research Network members were active in the Scientific Steering Committee: 

• Kristie Ebi, Health Knowledge-Action Network Co-Chair
• Jana Sillmann, Risk Knowledge-Action Network Co-Chair

Further Future Earth site participation:

• Siir Kilkis, Urban Knowledge-Action Network
• Sylvia Lorek, Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production Knowledge-Action Network

Catch up with recordings from the Scenarios Forum (also available on YouTube)

The Scenarios Forum 2022 was presented by: 

• International Committee On New Integrated Climate change assessment Scenarios (ICONICS)

The Scenarios Forum 2022 was generously supported by: 

• The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• ClimateWorks Foundation 

The Scenarios Forum 2022 was held in partnership with:

• Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
• Future Earth
• Earth System Governance Project (ESG) 

The Scenarios Forum2022 was hosted by: 

• International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

Banner image by Silveri for Scenarios Forum