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Overview

Background

IAMs are computational models that produce scenarios of economy, energy system, land use, and greenhouse-gas emissions developments over time, across regions, and under different policy assumptions. Large ensembles of such scenarios by multiple model families underpin major scientific assessments such as the IPCC reports.

Scenarios are often validated in the process of producing new scenarios or when in the process of collecting and assess existing scenario ensembles. Specifically, scenarios are often checked against empirical observations, near-term projections, and sustainability targets to identify scenarios that are outdated, internally inconsistent, technically infeasible, or ecologically undesirable. This package provides a versioned, machine-readable set of such validation criteria so that different research groups can apply the same standards.

Editions and versions

  • Editions: The criteria definitions are continuously updated and published in regular editions. These editions are named using a YYYY-MM-DD pattern that indicates the date of the edition. Editions remain accessible throughout new package versions.
  • Versions: As more editions are added, new versions of the package are published. The versions are named using a vX.X.X pattern, corresponding to major, minor, and patch version numbers. Major version changes indicate breaking backwards-compatibility, minor version changes indicate additional "features" (usually new editions), and patch version changes indicate minor fixes. New versions retain copies of older editions for backwards-compatibility.

Currently, the following editions are available: