Katherine Calvin

Last updated
Katherine Calvin
Katherine Calvin (NHQ202201100001 002).jpg
Alma mater University of Maryland
Stanford University
Known forContributions to US National Climate Assessment and IPCC special reports on climate change
Scientific career
FieldsEarth science, Integrated assessment, Land use, Climate science
InstitutionsNASA, Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Maryland, US Energy Information Administration

Katherine Calvin (born in the 1980s) is NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor. [1] In July 2023, she was elected co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III. [2] [3] As an earth scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), she has researched human use of global resources using Earth modeling systems at JGCRI under the direction of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the University of Maryland. She has contributed to the third US National Climate Assessment as well as two special reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Contents

Education

Calvin attended the University of Maryland from 1999 to 2003 where she earned bachelor's degrees in computer science and mathematics. She then attended Stanford University where she earned her master's degree and PhD in management science and engineering. [4] While earning her PhD, Calvin worked at the US Energy Information Administration for two years as an international energy analyst. [5] She completed her thesis, titled "Participation in international environmental agreements : a game-theoretic study" in 2008. [6]

Career and research

After completing her PhD in 2008, Calvin began working at PNNL. [7] She works in College Park Maryland with JGCRI's Global Change Assessment Model, a system for exploring and analyzing the relationships between Earth systems in response to global climate change. [8] [4] Her research simulates the interaction between global resources, focusing on the impact of land, water, and energy use through an environmental and socioeconomic lens. [4] [5] In her eleven years at PNNL, Calvin has co-authored over 90 PNNL publications, 20 of which she was the primary author. Her recent publications have investigated growing populations against agriculture and water scarcity in the face of climate change. [9] [10] [11]

In 2015, Calvin was selected to serve on a National Academy of Sciences research committee on models of the world. [12] The committee was commissioned by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to create various models for interrelated global systems such as economics, politics, and environment. The committee successfully concluded its research the following year, and its findings were published under the National Academies Press. [5] [13]

National Climate Assessment

Calvin was a lead author on the "Mitigation" chapter of the United States' third National Climate Assessment in 2014. [14] The chapter describes the degree that which reduced global carbon dioxide emissions would alleviate the effects of climate change and concludes that the world's governments would need to heavily reduce the amount of global carbon dioxide emissions by the end of the century in order to limit the global increase in temperature to 3-5 °F (1.6-2.7 °C). The chapter closes by offering potential measures to reduce the United States' greenhouse gas emissions. [15]

IPCC Special Reports

Calvin has contributed to two IPCC special reports on climate change. In 2018 the IPCC used Calvin's research on its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. [16] Calvin was a contributing author on chapter two of the report, which offered strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change in order to prevent a global average temperature increase of 1.5 °C. The article cited Calvin's research on land use and its relationship with socioeconomic and environmental effects. [17]

Calvin also contributed to the IPCC's Special Report on Climate Change and Land in 2019. [18] This report examines the effect that elevated greenhouse gasses will have on the planet from a perspective of human land usage. Calvin was a coordinating lead author in the report's sixth chapter, in which her research was used extensively throughout. Chapter six offers pathways of mitigating the harmful effects of global climate change on land use, such as reduced deforestation and agricultural diversification. [19]

Publications

Notable articles by Calvin include:

Awards

In 2015, Calvin was awarded PNNL's Ronald L. Brodzinski Early Career Exceptional Achievement Award. She was nominated by Ghassem Asrar, director of JGCRI. [7]

In 2019, Calvin received the Piers J. Sellers Global Environmental Change Mid-Career Award from the American Geophysical Union. [25] She also received the IAMC Award for extraordinary contributions to the field of integrated assessment modeling. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Causes of climate change</span> Effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent global warming

The scientific community has been investigating the causes of climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, it came to a consensus, where it is "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-industrial times." This consensus is supported by around 200 scientific organizations worldwide, The dominant role in this climate change has been played by the direct emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Indirect CO2 emissions from land use change, and the emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases play major supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global warming potential</span> Potential heat absorbed by a greenhouse gas

Global warming potential (GWP) is an index to measure how much infrared thermal radiation a greenhouse gas would absorb over a given time frame after it has been added to the atmosphere. The GWP makes different greenhouse gases comparable with regard to their "effectiveness in causing radiative forcing". It is expressed as a multiple of the radiation that would be absorbed by the same mass of added carbon dioxide, which is taken as a reference gas. Therefore, the GWP has a value of 1 for CO2. For other gases it depends on how strongly the gas absorbs infrared thermal radiation, how quickly the gas leaves the atmosphere, and the time frame being considered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioenergy</span> Renewable energy made from biomass

Bioenergy is a type of renewable energy that is derived from plants and animal waste. The biomass that is used as input materials consists of recently living organisms, mainly plants. Thus, fossil fuels are not regarded as biomass under this definition. Types of biomass commonly used for bioenergy include wood, food crops such as corn, energy crops and waste from forests, yards, or farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Report on Emissions Scenarios</span> 2000 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was published in 2000. The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projections of possible future climate change. The SRES scenarios, as they are often called, were used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR), published in 2001, and in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), published in 2007. The SRES scenarios were designed to improve upon some aspects of the IS92 scenarios, which had been used in the earlier IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995. The SRES scenarios are "baseline" scenarios, which means that they do not take into account any current or future measures to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change mitigation</span> Actions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change

Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sources. Secondary mitigation strategies include changes to land use and removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Current climate change mitigation policies are insufficient as they would still result in global warming of about 2.7 °C by 2100, significantly above the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to below 2 °C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon footprint</span> Concept to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from activities or products

A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country adds to the atmosphere. Carbon footprints are usually reported in tonnes of emissions (CO2-equivalent) per unit of comparison. Such units can be for example tonnes CO2-eq per year, per kilogram of protein for consumption, per kilometer travelled, per piece of clothing and so forth. A product's carbon footprint includes the emissions for the entire life cycle. These run from the production along the supply chain to its final consumption and disposal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic analysis of climate change</span> Using economic tools to investigate climate change

An economic analysis of climate change uses economic tools and models to calculate the magnitude and distribution of damages caused by climate change. It can also give guidance for the best policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change from an economic perspective. There are many economic models and frameworks. For example, in a cost–benefit analysis, the trade offs between climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation are made explicit. For this kind of analysis, integrated assessment models (IAMs) are useful. Those models link main features of society and economy with the biosphere and atmosphere into one modelling framework. The total economic impacts from climate change are difficult to estimate. In general, they increase the more the global surface temperature increases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land use, land-use change, and forestry</span> Greenhouse gas inventory sector

Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), also referred to as Forestry and other land use (FOLU) or Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), is defined as a "greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use such as settlements and commercial uses, land-use change, and forestry activities."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biomass (energy)</span> Biological material used as a renewable energy source

In the context of energy production, biomass is matter from recently living organisms which is used for bioenergy production. Examples include wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues including straw, and organic waste from industry and households. Wood and wood residues is the largest biomass energy source today. Wood can be used as a fuel directly or processed into pellet fuel or other forms of fuels. Other plants can also be used as fuel, for instance maize, switchgrass, miscanthus and bamboo. The main waste feedstocks are wood waste, agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, and manufacturing waste. Upgrading raw biomass to higher grade fuels can be achieved by different methods, broadly classified as thermal, chemical, or biochemical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions</span> Greenhouse gases emitted from human activities

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of the most important factors in causing climate change. The largest emitters are China followed by the United States. The United States has higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before. Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 GtC, of which 484±20 GtC from fossil fuels and industry, and 219±60 GtC from land use change. Land-use change, such as deforestation, caused about 31% of cumulative emissions over 1870–2022, coal 32%, oil 24%, and gas 10%.

Integrated assessment modelling (IAM) or integrated modelling (IM)  is a term used for a type of scientific modelling that tries to link main features of society and economy with the biosphere and atmosphere into one modelling framework. The goal of integrated assessment modelling is to accommodate informed policy-making, usually in the context of climate change though also in other areas of human and social development. While the detail and extent of integrated disciplines varies strongly per model, all climatic integrated assessment modelling includes economic processes as well as processes producing greenhouse gases. Other integrated assessment models also integrate other aspects of human development such as education, health, infrastructure, and governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric methane</span> Methane in Earths atmosphere

Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth's atmosphere. The concentration of atmospheric methane is increasing due to methane emissions, and is causing climate change. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. Methane's radiative forcing (RF) of climate is direct, and it is the second largest contributor to human-caused climate forcing in the historical period. Methane is a major source of water vapour in the stratosphere through oxidation; and water vapour adds about 15% to methane's radiative forcing effect. The global warming potential (GWP) for methane is about 84 in terms of its impact over a 20-year timeframe, and 28 in terms of its impact over a 100-year timeframe.

A climate change scenario is a hypothetical future based on a "set of key driving forces". Scenarios explore the long-term effectiveness of mitigation and adaptation. Scenarios help to understand what the future may hold. They can show which decisions will have the most meaningful effects on mitigation and adaptation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Representative Concentration Pathway</span> Projections used in climate change modeling

Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) are climate change scenarios to project future greenhouse gas concentrations. These pathways describe future greenhouse gas concentrations and have been formally adopted by the IPCC. The pathways describe different climate change scenarios, all of which were considered possible depending on the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted in the years to come. The four RCPs – originally RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5 – are labelled after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100. The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) began to use these four pathways for climate modeling and research in 2014. The higher values mean higher greenhouse gas emissions and therefore higher global surface temperatures and more pronounced effects of climate change. The lower RCP values, on the other hand, are more desirable for humans but would require more stringent climate change mitigation efforts to achieve them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon budget</span> Limit on carbon dioxide emission for a given climate impact

A carbon budget is a concept used in climate policy to help set emissions reduction targets in a fair and effective way. It examines the "maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions that would result in limiting global warming to a given level". It can be expressed relative to the pre-industrial period. In this case, it is the total carbon budget. Or it can be expressed from a recent specified date onwards. In that case it is the remaining carbon budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture</span>

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is significant: The agriculture, forestry and land use sectors contribute between 13% and 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions come from direct greenhouse gas emissions. And from indirect emissions. With regards to direct emissions, nitrous oxide and methane makeup over half of total greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Indirect emissions on the other hand come from the conversion of non-agricultural land such as forests into agricultural land. Furthermore, there is also fossil fuel consumption for transport and fertilizer production. For example, the manufacture and use of nitrogen fertilizer contributes around 5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock farming is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, livestock farming is affected by climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shared Socioeconomic Pathways</span> Climate change scenarios

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are climate change scenarios of projected socioeconomic global changes up to 2100 as defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on climate change in 2021. They are used to derive greenhouse gas emissions scenarios with different climate policies. The SSPs provide narratives describing alternative socio-economic developments. These storylines are a qualitative description of logic relating elements of the narratives to each other. In terms of quantitative elements, they provide data accompanying the scenarios on national population, urbanization and GDP. The SSPs can be quantified with various Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to explore possible future pathways both with regards to socioeconomic and climate pathways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IPCC Sixth Assessment Report</span> Intergovernmental report on climate change

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess the available scientific information on climate change. Three Working Groups covered the following topics: The Physical Science Basis (WGI); Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (WGII); Mitigation of Climate Change (WGIII). Of these, the first study was published in 2021, the second report February 2022, and the third in April 2022. The final synthesis report was finished in March 2023.

Joeri Rogelj is a Belgian climate scientist working on solutions to climate change. He explores how societies can transform towards sustainable futures. He is a Professor in Climate Science and Policy at the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) and Director of Research at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment, both at Imperial College London. He is also affiliated with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He is an author of several climate reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and a member of the European Scientific Advisory Board for Climate Change.

References

  1. ↑ "Katherine Calvin, Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor". 10 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Katherine Calvin — IPCC".
  3. ↑ "Summary report 25–28 July 2023".
  4. 1 2 3 "PNNL: Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change - Staff Information Kate Calvin". www.pnnl.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  5. 1 2 3 "Project: Models of the World for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency". www8.nationalacademies.org. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  6. ↑ Calvin, Katherine (2008). Participation in international environmental agreements : a game-theoretic study / (Thesis).
  7. 1 2 "PNNL: Katherine Calvin Honored for Early Career Exceptional Achievement". www.pnnl.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  8. ↑ "Global Change Assessment Model | Joint Global Change Research Institute". www.globalchange.umd.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  9. ↑ Fitton, N.; Alexander, P.; Arnell, N.; Bajzelj, B.; Calvin, K.; Doelman, J.; Gerber, J. S.; Havlik, P.; Hasegawa, T. (2019-09-01). "The vulnerabilities of agricultural land and food production to future water scarcity". Global Environmental Change. 58: 101944. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101944 . hdl: 2164/12602 . ISSN   0959-3780.
  10. ↑ Turner, Sean W. D.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Calvin, Katherine; Kyle, Page; Kim, Sonny (2019-07-10). "A pathway of global food supply adaptation in a world with increasingly constrained groundwater". Science of the Total Environment. 673: 165–176. Bibcode:2019ScTEn.673..165T. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.070 . ISSN   0048-9697. PMID   30986676.
  11. ↑ Huang, Zhongwei; Hejazi, Mohamad; Tang, Qiuhong; Vernon, Chris R.; Liu, Yaling; Chen, Min; Calvin, Kate (2019-07-01). "Global agricultural green and blue water consumption under future climate and land use changes". Journal of Hydrology. 574: 242–256. Bibcode:2019JHyd..574..242H. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.04.046 . ISSN   0022-1694.
  12. ↑ "PNNL: Kate Calvin Appointed to National Research Council Study Team". www.pnnl.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  13. ↑ Read "From Maps to Models: Augmenting the Nation's Geospatial Intelligence Capabilities" at NAP.edu. 2016. doi:10.17226/23650. ISBN   978-0-309-44991-5.
  14. ↑ "National Climate Assessment". National Climate Assessment. Archived from the original on September 22, 2016. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  15. ↑ Jacoby, H. D., A. C. Janetos, R. Birdsey, J. Buizer, K. Calvin, F. de la Chesnaye, D. Schimel, I. Sue Wing, R. Detchon, J. Edmonds, L. Russell, and J. West, 2014: Ch. 27: Mitigation. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment, J. M. Melillo, Terese (T.C.) Richmond, and G. W. Yohe, Eds., U.S. Global Change Research Program, 648-669. doi:10.7930/J0C8276J.
  16. ↑ "Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable development". IPCC. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  17. ↑ J. Rogelj, D. Shindell, K. Jiang, S. Fifita, P. Forster, V. Ginzburg, C. Handa, H. Kheshgi, S. Kobayashi, E. Kriegler, L. Mundaca, R. Séférian, M. V. Vilariño, 2018, Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable development. In: Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
  18. ↑ "IPCC Authors (beta)". apps.ipcc.ch. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  19. ↑ Smith, Pete & Nkem, Johnson & Calvin, Katherine & Campbell, Donovan & Cherubini, Francesco & Grassi, Giacomo & Korotkov, Vladimir & Hoang, Anh & Lwasa, Shuaib & McElwee, Pamela & Nkonya, Ephraim & Saigusa, Nobuko & Soussana, Jean-François & Taboada, Miguel & Arias-Navarro, Cristina & Cavalett, Otavio & Cowie, Annette & House, Joanna & Huppmann, Daniel & Vizzarri, Matteo, 2019, Ch. 6: Interlinkages between Desertification, Land Degradation, Food Security and GHG fluxes: synergies, trade-offs and Integrated Response Options. In: Climate Change and Land. An IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.
  20. ↑ Meinshausen, Malte (9 Aug 2011). "The RCP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions from 1765 to 2300". Climatic Change. 109 (213): 213–241. Bibcode:2011ClCh..109..213M. doi: 10.1007/s10584-011-0156-z .
  21. ↑ Thomson, Allison M. (29 July 2011). "RCP4.5: a pathway for stabilization of radiative forcing by 2100". Climatic Change. 109 (77): 77–94. Bibcode:2011ClCh..109...77T. doi: 10.1007/s10584-011-0151-4 .
  22. ↑ Wise, Marshall (29 May 2009). "Implications of Limiting CO2 Concentrations for Land Use and Energy". Science. 324 (5931): 1183–6. Bibcode:2009Sci...324.1183W. doi:10.1126/science.1168475. PMID   19478180. S2CID   5050930 . Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  23. ↑ Riahi, Keywan (January 2017). "The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: An overview". Global Environmental Change. 42: 153–168. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.009 . hdl: 10044/1/78069 .
  24. ↑ Calvin, Katherine (December 2009). "2.6: Limiting climate change to 450 ppm CO2 equivalent in the 21st century". Energy Economics. 31 (Supplement 2): S107–S120. doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2009.06.006.
  25. ↑ AGU (3 April 2020). "Calvin Receives 2019 Piers J. Sellers Global Environmental Change Mid-Career Award". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  26. ↑ "Kate CALVIN – iamconsortium" . Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  27. ↑ "17 PNNL Researchers Named to Highly Cited List | PNNL".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.