NGFS’s 2022 climate change scenarios

NGFS is the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System.

Link to NGFS’s press release of 6 September 2022.

Link to NGFS’s scenarios portal.

Summary

There are six scenarios across three quadrants:

Physical risks come from climate change. Transition risks come from changes in climate policy and technology.

Temperature changes are on the basis of 2050 versus pre-industrial times.

‘NDCs’ are Nationally Determined Contributions which include all pledged policies, even if not yet implemented. ‘Current policies’ are currently implemented policies.

Descriptions

The four quadrants:

  • Orderly: climate policies are introduced early and become gradually more stringent.
  • Disorderly: policies are delayed or divergent across countries and sectors.
  • Hot house world: some climate policies are implemented in some jurisdictions, but global efforts are insufficient to halt significant global warming.
  • Too little, too late: a late transition fails to limit physical risks.

The six scenarios:

Overview

Gt = gigatonnes

Changes

The NGFS indicates that the main changes versus its June 2021 version are from the incorporation of:

  • Most recent country-level climate commitments made at the COP26 in 2021 (the UN climate change conference in Glasgow);
  • Latest GDP and population pathways;
  • Projections of the potential losses from extreme weather events (floods and tropical cyclones);
  • Specific impacts of chronic climate changes on the macroeconomy.

They do not incorporate the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis.