Equilibrium climate sensitivity in light of observations over the warming hiatus

Abstract

The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report revised estimates of equilibrium climate sensitivity as a result of the ongoing warming hiatus. This study investigates how accumulating observations affect climate sensitivity estimates and finds that although there is a small downwards adjustment in the sensitivity, the lower bound of the 90% range is unchanged. A key uncertainty in projecting future climate change is the magnitude of equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS), that is, the eventual increase in global annual average surface temperature in response to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration. The lower bound of the likely range for ECS given in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5; refs 1, 2) was revised downwards to 1.5 °C, from 2 °C in its previous report3, mainly as an effect of considering observations over the warming hiatus—the period of slowdown of global average temperature increase since the early 2000s. Here we analyse how estimates of ECS change as observations accumulate over time and estimate the contribution of potential causes to the hiatus. We find that including observations over the hiatus reduces the most likely value for ECS from 2.8 °C to 2.5 °C, but that the lower bound of the 90% range remains stable around 2 °C. We also find that the hiatus is primarily attributable to El Niño/Southern Oscillation-related variability and reduced solar forcing.

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Johansson, D., O’Neill, B., Tebaldi, C. et al. Equilibrium climate sensitivity in light of observations over the warming hiatus. Nature Clim Change 5, 449–453 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2573

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