SPARCCLE

ABSTRACT:

Climate change brings many highly uncertain impacts onto society and economy, and its risks, incorporating vulnerability, require more comprehensive assessments. This requires an enhanced understanding of the interdependencies between climate impacts, adaptation and mitigation measures at high sectoral and spatial granularity, and the temporal evolution and the capacity of the broader socioeconomic context to cope with the climate challenge. SPARCCLE will deliver new, cutting-edge methodological capabilities by advancing and linking knowledge across research communities. Comprehensive assessment of risk will entail production of granular socio-economic data and projections; bottom-up analyses of multidimensional climate vulnerabilities, including under-researched aspects such as gender inequality; high-resolution probabilistic hazards, damages and mitigation-adaptation synergies and trade-offs; top-down integrated assessment frameworks and leading multi-sectoral macro-economic models; socioeconomic analyses incorporating cross-sector and spillover effects and distributional implications. Stress-test scenarios will be deployed for an advanced understanding of the critical climate risks and how they can be managed. Tool and process co-design and co-development with private and public sector stakeholders, including the JRC will enhance exploitation, capacity building and bridge the science-policy-practice gap; all underpinned by established open science data and models and disseminated through various mediums, including online decision-support platforms and public API. SPARCCLE outputs will be guided by the ongoing climate policy ambitions such as Mission Adaptation and EU Green Deal to deliver new insights and decision-making support tools which inform robust climate mitigation and adaptation policy, and contribute to the design of societal transformation pathways of for the EU.

AIM (WHAT)

Addressing the risks of climate change has become a global priority, essential to ensure long-term sustainable development. To deal with the uncertainty and the cascading effects that climate change brings forward, adaption and mitigation strategies need to be multi-layered and multidimensional, taking into account high sectoral and spatial granularity, as well as the temporal evolution and the capacity of the broader socioeconomic context. Against this background, the SPARCCLE project has five main objectives: 1) to accelerate, democratize and enhance climate risk assessment; 2) to develop granular socioeconomic projections; 3) to develop integrated insights on critical mitigation-adaptation synergies and trade-offs, resulting in region-specific recommendations, 4) to co-design and co-create state-of-the-art tools for knowledge transfer and exploitation; 5) to co-design stress-test scenarios that explore different components of socioeconomic climate risks.

METHODOLOGY (HOW)

To achieve these objectives, the consortium will rely on an integrative approach that combines bottom-up and top-down methodologies as well as qualitative, empirical and model-based methodologies. The project involves three main interlinked workstreams that adopt methods from different disciplines: 1) biophysical extremes and climate impacts; 2) granular socioeconomics and multidimensional vulnerabilities; and 3) risks, damages and adaptation. These workstreams come together through implementation and consistent integration into climate resilient and sustainable pathways developed using integrated assessment frameworks. Finally, the consortium will be deeply involved with stakeholder engagement processes.

IMPACT (WHY)

The SPARCCLE project will have positive effects in the short-, medium-, and long-term. It will push forward climate research agenda, provide detailed region- and sector-specific information to inform the decisions of policy-makers and practitioners, and build capacity within key stakeholders groups and beyond. Ultimately, results from the project will support decision making for action on climate-driven socioeconomic risks and enable the better identification of adaptation strategies and sustainable transformations that are robust and resilient to climate and socioeconomic uncertainties.