Climate research at the Earth Institute spans multiple disciplines. While climate scientists study the effects of increased temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide on the world’s oceans and weather patterns, engineers are seeking ways to produce cleaner energy and provide steady supplies of fresh water. Social scientists, policy experts and lawyers are studying human behavior in the face of change as a way to improve how we make decisions, and the policy and legal tools we can use to implement measures that address the climate challenge. The Columbia Climate Center integrates research from throughout the University and across disciplines to translate the best climate knowledge into practical solutions.
Featured Projects
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
A Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) project, Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World (ACCWW), studies abrupt changes in climate in the past, present and future in the context of anthropogenic warming. A guiding premise of the project is that the ability to understand and predict what might occur in the future comes from observations of present and past conditions. Numerical models that simulate climate conditions provide our view of the future. The recent cases of dramatic change, such as loss of summer Arctic sea ice; the speed up of Greenland outlet glaciers; ongoing droughts in southwestern North America, Asia and Australia; heat waves; and destructive hurricanes highlight the urgency of improved understanding of climate processes and the rate at which these changes occur.
The ACCWW program includes studies of climate variability on many spatial and temporal scales, as well as modeling to integrate the results of these studies and eventually lead to more reliable predictions of future climate conditions. Specific areas of research include climate-related changes in ocean circulation, frequency and causes of drought in the southwestern United States, variability in the strength of the Asian monsoon, and processes that link different parts of the Earth system during abrupt climate change.
Tree-Ring Lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
The Tree-Ring Lab of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is applying the information derived from tree rings to understand how the processes that drive the Asia monsoon climate system vary and interact on various scales, from inter-annual to centennial. The Asia monsoon climate system plays a significant role in large-scale climate variability worldwide. Understanding how it has varied in the past will improve our ability to predict future changes. Key processes affect the Asian monsoon: air temperatures over Asia and surface ocean temperatures in the Indian equatorial Pacific Oceans, especially linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
Tree-ring samples are being collected from across the monsoon-affected region of Asia to reconstruct the history of monsoon indices over past centuries to millennia. There is particular urgency in collecting more records in the face of the destruction of unique old-age forests.
The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED)
Climate change and uncertainty are complex topics relating to a wide range of populations. To date, social science research has not been sufficiently exploited to help individuals and groups incorporate information about climate uncertainty and environmental risk into decision making. The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) has released “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication.” This guide, aimed at climate researchers, policymakers, communicators and the interested public, uses the center’s research in the social sciences to provide insight into how to better communicate climate change. Laboratory and field research, synthesized with real-world examples, is translated for a broader audience of environmental communicators.
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Millions of people around the globe have already been forced to relocate due to climate-related impacts and hundreds of millions more may be displaced in the next few decades. While most migration is caused by a combination of factors, climate change and other environmental degradation will play an increasingly important role in uprooting people.
“In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement,” a new report from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), in collaboration with the United Nations University Institute for Environmental Human Security and CARE International, presents evidence from the first multi-continent survey of environmental change and human mobility along with original maps of climate change impacts and population distributions. Though it is impossible to draw a direct causal link between global mean temperatures and population movements, the report draws upon “current scientific understanding of environmental processes and how these processes can affect human mobility.”
Columbia Climate Center (CCC)
As discussed in the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December of 2009, world governments have established regulations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The ultimate goal is to keep atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases low enough to reduce the likelihood of “dangerous” climate change. Some of these regulations are emissions targets, such as those of the Kyoto Protocol or the Copenhagen Accord, which calls for an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Other regulations are targets to increase the use of renewable energies or to improve efficiency standards.
Working in collaboration with Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, who identified almost 300 such policy targets in 170 countries, the Columbia Climate Center has developed a model to quantify the impacts of these targets on emissions. A key result of the first report is that even if existing policy targets are successful, global emissions in 2020 will exceed those required for stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases at “safe” levels. Thus, more aggressive regulations will be required to minimize perturbations to the climate system.
International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI)
Climate presents a challenge to people whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment. An invaluable tool to manage climate risk management is index insurance, which the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is addressing in partnership with the United Nations Development Program, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Oxfam America, Swiss Re, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the World Food Program.
Capital with which to try out new seeds or fertilizer is limiting for farmers in many developing nations. But if they were able to insure their crops, they might be more viable recipients of loans. Unfortunately, traditional insurance is unworkable in many poor rural areas because of the difficulty in visiting a farmer’s fields to determine premiums or to assess damages. In weather index insurance, the insurance pays out when the rainfall recorded by gauges (or another indicator) falls below an agreed-upon threshold. This reduction in transaction costs for the insurance companies provides access to insurance for small farmers, allowing them to apply for bank loans and other types of credit previously unavailable to them.
Center for Climate Change Law (CCCL)
What is being done to respond to the effects of changing climate from a regulatory and legislative perspective? And how does one keep track in a rapidly moving policy landscape? The Climate Regulation Tracking Service project at the Center for Climate Change Law (CCCL) assembles and analyzes up-to-date national legislation that covers renewable energy standards, emissions reductions, fuel efficiency standards and more.
In addition to providing primary sources and direct access to the legislation, both in-place and proposed, the tracking service draws together relevant commentary and analysis to provide greater perspective on the legislation and deepen our understanding of its possible effects. For example, the Dewey and LeBoeuf Summary of the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule expands on the details of the legislation and clarifies the subject for interested readers. This project is complemented by parallel efforts on municipal regulations and on climate litigation.
The Global Network for Climate Solutions
With the generous support of the Planet Heritage Foundation and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, the Earth Institute is initiating the Global Network for Climate Solutions and evaluating its ability to influence future international climate negotiations by grounding them in shared research that is focused on concrete solutions and action. The effort aims to facilitate the design of country-based action strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation, with, potentially, the first set to become available in time for consideration and use during the 2010 climate conference in Cancún, Mexico.
To inform developing-country adaptation efforts and plans for global adaptation financing, the adaptation component of the network will interact with a range of institutes in developing countries to formulate a set of adaptation plans, following a common methodology. The goals are to advance practical, science-based methods for adaptation solutions; identify and assess new technologies and needed policies and institutions; create a basis for comparing adaptation costs; and improve capacities of institutes and nongovernmental organizations in developing countries to contribute to adaptation planning and practice.
The premise of the mitigation component of the network is that in the wake of the Copenhagen conference, addressing the risks of climate change requires new thinking, backed up by new kinds of information. Thus, the first step in this initiative is to develop a format for comparing the things individual countries can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with a focus on sectors and individual gases. Simultaneously, we will organize a network of contributing organizations with in-country knowledge to help us develop data for this format. Ultimately, we aim to use this information to make proposals for coordinated mitigation plans and policies, and for structuring future rounds of negotiations.
In this exploratory phase, the network will be hosted by the Earth Institute, coordinated by the Columbia Climate Center and overseen by two global project boards, one for adaptation and one for mitigation. Scott Barrett will chair the Mitigation Board, and Shiv Someshwar will chair the Adaptation Board. Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, will oversee the program.
