Climate science for 2050

Knowledge of the functioning of the climate system, including the physical, dynamical and biogeochemical feedback processes expected to occur in response to anthropogenic climate forcing, has increased substantially over recent decades. Today, climate science is at a crossroads, with new and urgent demands arising from the needs of society to deal with future climate change, and the need for the climate science community to refine its strategic goals to meet these demands rapidly. All possible—but currently unknown—worlds in 2050, with a larger global population, unprecedented climate conditions with higher temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, sea level rise, disrupted ecosystems, changes in habitability and increased climate-induced displacement and migration, and the emergence of new geopolitical tensions, will require limiting society’s vulnerability both through mitigation measures to minimize further warming and through the implementation of innovative adaptation initiatives. The development of a skillful climate information system, based on the most advanced Earth system science, will be required to inform decision-makers and the public around the world about the local and remote impacts of climate change, and guide them in optimizing their adaptation and mitigation agendas. This information will also help manage renewable resources in a warmer world and strengthen resilience to the expected interconnected impacts of climate change. In this paper, we summarize the major advances needed to understand the multiscale dynamics of the Earth system. We highlight the need to develop an integrated information system accessible to decision-makers and citizens in all parts of the world, and present some of the key scientific questions that need to be addressed to inform decisions on mitigation and adaptation. Finally, we speculate about the values and ethics of climate science and the nature of climate research in a world that will be increasingly affected by global warming in a geopolitical context very different from that of recent decades.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Climate
Published
2025-05-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2025.1554685
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Climate variability and models
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.42

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article

Climate science for 2050

Paul Edwards, Thomas F. Stocker, Gavin A. Schmidt, Helen Cleugh et al.
4 citations
Frontiers in Climate
Climate variability and models
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article

Climate science for 2050

Paul Edwards, Thomas F. Stocker, Gavin A. Schmidt, Helen Cleugh, Jadwiga H. Richter, Kevin E. Trenberth, Mary Scholes, Tiffany A. Shaw, Valérie Masson‐Delmotte, Daniela Jacob, Michael Mann, Detlef Stammer, Pierre Friedlingstein, Guy Pierre Brasseur, Steve Easterbrook, Guoxiong Wu, Gabriele C. Hegerl, Carolina Vera, Martin Visbeck, André Berger
article en
4 citations

Abstract

Knowledge of the functioning of the climate system, including the physical, dynamical and biogeochemical feedback processes expected to occur in response to anthropogenic climate forcing, has increased substantially over recent decades. Today, climate science is at a crossroads, with new and urgent demands arising from the needs of society to deal with future climate change, and the need for the climate science community to refine its strategic goals to meet these demands rapidly. All possible—but currently unknown—worlds in 2050, with a larger global population, unprecedented climate conditions with higher temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, sea level rise, disrupted ecosystems, changes in habitability and increased climate-induced displacement and migration, and the emergence of new geopolitical tensions, will require limiting society’s vulnerability both through mitigation measures to minimize further warming and through the implementation of innovative adaptation initiatives. The development of a skillful climate information system, based on the most advanced Earth system science, will be required to inform decision-makers and the public around the world about the local and remote impacts of climate change, and guide them in optimizing their adaptation and mitigation agendas. This information will also help manage renewable resources in a warmer world and strengthen resilience to the expected interconnected impacts of climate change. In this paper, we summarize the major advances needed to understand the multiscale dynamics of the Earth system. We highlight the need to develop an integrated information system accessible to decision-makers and citizens in all parts of the world, and present some of the key scientific questions that need to be addressed to inform decisions on mitigation and adaptation. Finally, we speculate about the values and ethics of climate science and the nature of climate research in a world that will be increasingly affected by global warming in a geopolitical context very different from that of recent decades.

Frontiers in ClimateVol. 7
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US), Australian National University (AU), University of Bern (CH), Center for Strategic and International Studies (US), Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (CA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (CH), École Polytechnique (FR), University of Auckland (NZ), Universität Hamburg (DE), University of Toronto (CA), University of the Witwatersrand (ZA), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR), University of Exeter (GB), Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Université Paris-Saclay (FR), German Climate Computing Centre (DE), Edinburgh College (GB), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE), GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (DE), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Chicago (US), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (FR), Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (FR), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR), CEA Paris-Saclay (FR), Hochbahn (Germany) (DE), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (DE), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (DE), University of Pennsylvania (US), UCLouvain (BE), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Science Foundation, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Climate variability and models
4.42
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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