Title: Bridging climate and biodiversity in Integrated Assessment Models
Speaker: Cindy Azuero, SEME/CMCC
Moderator: Johannes Emmerling, SEME/CMCC
Abstract:
Biodiversity loss and climate change crises are deeply interlinked. However, potential solutions and research to support decision-making for these crises have largely been developed independently. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have the potential to bridge the gap between climate change and biodiversity conservation policy evaluation, given their integrated, interdisciplinary nature and their capacity to represent both direct and indirect effects of policies. In this presentation, we discuss the potential of IAMs to assess climate-biodiversity-economy interactions. We review how biodiversity is currently represented in IAMs, showing that the literature splits into two largely disconnected approaches — one tracking biodiversity indicators such as species loss, the other modeling how biodiversity loss feeds back into the economy — and that important ecosystems, particularly marine and freshwater systems, remain largely absent from both. We close by outlining methodological directions to reconcile these approaches and close these gaps.
Registration link: https://cmcc-it.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3KM2qgkbRpmObLN2bzXb7A
