The difficult, the dangerous, and the catastrophic: Managing the spectrum of climate risks

Abstract

The notion of a threshold of dangerous climate change has been central to national and international efforts to address climate risks. However, the focus on a single target has now become an obstacle because it reinforces three key problems: it frames climate change as a distant abstract threat, it impedes integration of mitigation and adaptation, and it fails to recognize the diversity of values and risk perceptions of people around the globe. We present an alternative framework that considers both biophysical science and social values in characterizing the broad spectrum of climate risks. The framework also presents the options for managing these risks within four quadrants defined by the inherent limits to mitigation and adaptation. This quadrant‐based approach to managing the spectrum of climate risks restructures the climate change problem from avoiding a distant catastrophe to minimizing collective suffering. The notion of a global threshold of dangerous climate change is now an obstacle We propose an alternative framework to manage the spectrum of climate risks We present a solution space defined by the limits of mitigation and adaptation