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Briefing note 003: Why are we uncertain about how extremely wet conditions will change in Australia in the future?

February 11, 2019 4:08 pm Published by Comments Off on Briefing note 003: Why are we uncertain about how extremely wet conditions will change in Australia in the future?

Computer models used to simulate global climate agree the climate will warm in response to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases. However, a recent paper by Bador et al. (2018)1 includes results that highlight our uncertainty about exactly how extremely wet conditions will change in Australia. Further development of Australia’s national climate model, ACCESS, may help reduce this uncertainty.

Research brief: Selecting the correct model is more than a “beauty contest”

February 7, 2019 4:06 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Selecting the correct model is more than a “beauty contest”

The scientific community is moving away from “beauty contest” thinking where models are accepted or rejected on the basis of how well they simulate particular aspects of the present or past, toward a smarter approach that seeks to understand and exploit how present and future predictions are related as well as how different models are related.

Research brief: Australian climate policy inaction threatens lives

February 5, 2019 3:31 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Australian climate policy inaction threatens lives

Overall, the inaugural Australian Countdown finds that Australia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on health, and that policy inaction in this regard threatens Australian lives. In a number of respects, Australia has gone backwards and now lags behind other high income countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Examples include the persistence of a very high carbon-intensive energy system in Australia, and a slow transition to renewables and low-carbon electricity generation.

Research brief: Strongest El Niño events to increase with climate change

February 5, 2019 12:53 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: Strongest El Niño events to increase with climate change

We can expect more occurrences of extreme weather associated with eastern Pacific El Niño events (the strongest and most destructive of the two types of El Niño events), which will have pronounced implications for the twenty-first century climate, extreme weather and ecosystems.

Research brief: How to avoid overconfidence in climate model ensembles

January 30, 2019 3:06 pm Published by Comments Off on Research brief: How to avoid overconfidence in climate model ensembles

In this review paper, researchers contextualise the broad and seemingly disparate range of attempts to define and address model dependence within climate model ensembles, and offer concrete advice on how best to avoid overconfidence.