A climate impact taxonomy operationalizing IPCC physical driver and risk concepts

This taxonomy was developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), funded by ClimateWorks. It is designed to capture the breadth of climate impacts and to map them onto different risk dimensions, while pointing to adaptation and mitigation linkages. The taxonomy uses the IPCC AR6 Working Group I and II assessments as main references and applies the IPCC concepts of Climatic Impact-Drivers (CIDs) and Representative Key Risks (RKRs) as guiding taxonomy categories. The taxonomy does NOT provide a comprehensive or exhaustive analysis of all climate impacts but is intended to help the user improve their understanding of the diverse climate impact landscape and to facilitate a more targeted exploration of research engagement opportunities.The taxonomy is targeted at users from philanthropies engaging in the climate space and any non-experts interested in learning more about the climate impact landscape. For each RKR-specific ensemble of CIDs, the taxonomy provides more specific climate impact information grouped in five broad categories: Climate Impact Characteristics, Climate Impact Assessment, Adaptation Linkages, Mitigation Linkages, IPCC AR6 & AR7 Chapter References.An online version of the climate impact taxonomy published here can be interactively explored in the Climate Impact Taxonomy app. An integrated feedback mechanism encourages community engagement and supports continual refinement to increase the value of the taxonomy as a dynamic and easily accessible resource. Release notes (v1.1.0) Changes in this version: The Critical Global Warming Level categories were adjusted, and the category ‘Current (frequency to decrease, but duration and intensity may increase)’ merged with the category ‘Current’. The README sheet was updated to reflect this change and to correct the figure and the references. Release notes (v1.0.0) Changes in this version: The README sheet was revised and expanded to include more comprehensive information on the metadata, its compilation, and the data sources that were used. Additionally, links to data sources were included in the column headers in the Taxonomy sheet where appropriate. RKR–CID combinations were cross-referenced against IPCC AR6 WGII Chapter 16 Figure 16.12, and highly relevant combinations were highlighted in bold. The spatial and temporal scale examples for a number of RKR–CID combinations were revised to ensure they are distinct for each entry. Modeling examples were revised to include both a physical model and an impact model where possible, and the column was renamed to “Illustrative Modeling Approach”. Adaptation responses were aligned with investment options from the Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy (CBRT) where appropriate. Investment options included in the adaptation responses were highlighted with an asterisk (*). A new column called “Relevant Reason for Concern” was added to the Mitigation Linkages section, mapping each RKR–CID combination to one of the five IPCC Reasons for Concern (RFC). Critical Global Warming Levels were linked to the Reasons for Concern to reflect the temperature range at which the transition to high risk is reflected. The Illustrative Sectoral Emissions Reduction Potential column was reassessed and updated across all RKR–CID combinations. The IPCC AR6 Chapter References columns were updated. The chapter references for WGII now also include references to the regional chapters. The online version of the taxonomy was moved to https://climate-impact-taxonomy.iiasa.ac.at.