Journal article
Australian climate extremes at 1.5 °c and 2 °c of global warming
AD King, DJ Karoly, BJ Henley
Nature Climate Change | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2017
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3296
Abstract
To avoid more severe impacts from climate change, there is international agreement to strive to limit warming to below 1.5 °C. However, there is a lack of literature assessing climate change at 1.5 °C and the potential benefits in terms of reduced frequency of extreme events. Here, we demonstrate that existing model simulations provide a basis for rapid and rigorous analysis of the effects of different levels of warming on large-scale climate extremes, using Australia as a case study. We show that limiting warming to 1.5 °C, relative to 2 °C, would perceptibly reduce the frequency of extreme heat events in Australia. The Australian continent experiences a variety of high-impact climate extre..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the NCI facility in Australia and we acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modelling groups for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the US Department of Energy's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. We thank the Bureau of Meteorology, the Bureau of Rural Sciences and CSIRO for providing the Australian Water Availability Project data. A.D.K. and D.J.K. are funded through the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (CE110001028). B.J.H. is funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP150100062).