Integrated assessment model analysis of climate change in China

Climate change is one of the biggest risks of our time for human society. Anticipating the future under the climate change and identifying effective climate mitigation strategies are very challenging tasks. Integrated assessment model (IAM) is the mainstream methodological approach in climate change research. IAMs simulate the complex relations between earth, social and economic systems that determine future climate change, and they require input from atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, ecologists, economists, policy analysts, and others. China has become the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter as from 2017. This special issue on Integrated Assessment Model Analysis of Climate Change in China focuses on the current state of knowledge about the effects of climate change on natural and socioeconomic systems in China and how to mitigate or adapt to climate change; meanwhile with particular emphasis on how to narrow down the uncertainty of possible outcomes caused by IAM methods and so many climate-sensitive factors, such as energy technology innovation, land use transformation, socioeconomic development, domestic and international market fluctuation, earth system evolution, and so on.