Climate models play a crucial role in the current understanding of ongoing climate change and thus influence policy decisions. Yet there is little public debate about climate models, how they work, or their history.
We have discussed what the history of different global modelling models is and what different categories of modelling we might encounter or what limitations they have in climate issues with Beatrice Cointe. We look at climate models based on thermodynamics, biosphere models or models based on systems theory.
It is the category of models based on systems theory, called 'integrated assessment models', that Beatrice Cointe focuses on. In the podcast, she summarizes their history, as well as the debates around problematic aspects of modeling. She also mentions how work on these models continued across the Iron Curtain even during the rigid Cold War.
Beatrice Cointe also talks about where the 1.5°C target came from in the Paris Agreement and why the target of around 2°C has a slightly different history and how it relates to the fate of small island states. We also took a closer look at what emissions scenarios are, how many there are and what they all contain.

This episode was recorded thanks to the support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Prague.