Transparent scenario development (original) (raw)

Nature Climate Change volume 7, page 613 (2017) Cite this article

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To the Editor —

In a recent Commentary, Beck and Mahony1 argue that the development of low-emission scenarios has political implications that go beyond making neutral expert assessments. Beck and Mahony suggest that scenario builders need to anticipate the political impacts of the scenarios, which pose “great challenges to conventional ideas of scientific neutrality”1. We agree with the authors that the way in which scenarios are developed for use in climate science and policy should be revisited, but we believe that scenario builders should rather be more scientific and strive for more neutrality, and that improved methods for scenario development can help to achieve these aims.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm Environment Institute, Box 24218, Stockholm, SE-104 51, Sweden
    Henrik Carlsen
  2. Stockholm Environment Institute, PO Box 200818, Bonn, 53138, Germany
    Richard J. T. Klein
  3. Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Linköping, SE-581 83, Sweden
    Richard J. T. Klein
  4. Department of Philosophy and History, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SE-100 44, Sweden
    Per Wikman-Svahn

Authors

  1. Henrik Carlsen
  2. Richard J. T. Klein
  3. Per Wikman-Svahn

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Correspondence toHenrik Carlsen.

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Carlsen, H., Klein, R. & Wikman-Svahn, P. Transparent scenario development.Nature Clim Change 7, 613 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3379

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