SSP1 and SSP5 describe worlds with strong economic growth via sustainable and fossil fuel pathways, respectively. In both scenarios, incomes increase substantially across the globe and inequality within and between countries is greatly reduced; however, this growth comes at the expense of potentially large impacts from climate change in the case of SSP5. Demand for energy- and resource-intensive agricultural commodities such as ruminant meat is significantly lower in SSP1 due to changes in behavior and advances in energy efficiency. In both scenarios, pollution controls are expanded in high-income economies with other nations catching up relatively quickly with the developed world, resulting in reductions in air pollutant emissions. SSP2 is a so-called middle-of-the-road scenario with moderate population growth and slower convergence of income levels across countries. In SSP2, food consumption, especially for resource-intensive livestock-based commodities, is expected to increase and energy generation continues to rely on fossil fuels at approximately the same rates as today, resulting in continued growth of GHG emissions. Efforts at curbing air pollution continue along current trajectories with developing economies ultimately catching up to high-income nations, resulting in an eventual decrease in pollutant emissions. Finally, SSP3 and SSP4 depict futures with high inequality between countries (i.e., “regional rivalry”) and within countries, respectively. Global gross domestic product (GDP) growth is low in both scenarios and concentrated in currently high-income nations, whereas population increase is focused in low- and middle-income countries. Energy systems in SSP3 see a resurgence of coal dependence, whereas reductions occur in SSP4 as the high-tech energy and economy sectors see increased developments and investments leading to higher diversification of technologies (Bauer et al., 2017). Policy making (either regionally or internally) in areas including land-…
two graphs showing radiative forcing on the left side and global mean temperature on the right. Both have multiple colourful lines showing different trajectories but generally increasing from low on the left to high on the right, corresponding to different possible climate change futures.
Looking up the old #CMIP6 emissions pathways for a thing - and while I wish I lived in SSP1, it feels a lot more like SSP3 or 5 right now.
Beats me why they call #Economics the Dismal Science...🫠