A Climate Change Information System for Business and Industry

usiness and industry need to anticipate the potential risks and opportunities that climate change may create in the decades ahead in order to start now to ensure continued success and prosperity. This project is transforming the results of scientific computer climate research into quantitative business-specific formats that provide actionable foresight for adapting to climate change. Climate simulations for the 21st century computed recently for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by 29 climate modeling centers were aimed at predicting climate change driven by four scenarios of greenhouse forcing. The Climate Change Information System for Business and Industry (ClimBiz) is translating relevant subsets of this huge dataset archived by DOE into forms that will enable private sector executives and their firms to revise their business models and strategies to meet the challenge of climate change. A ClimBiz Phase I data analysis system and website is currently producing information about potential time variations of key climate variables in various regions of the world. Examples of business-specific transformations relevant to agriculture and energy have been developed and demonstrated. Phase II will focus on visualization of spatial patterns of climate change and the associated business impacts and on downscaling the scientific simulations to provide greater regional and local detail. With its own database selected and downloaded from the DOE archive, ClimBiz will offer customers a rapid and flexible facility for creating scenarios relevant to their activities and for estimating the probabilities that industry variables may become favorable or unfavorable in the next few decades or later in the century. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits. ClimBiz information will assist agriculture, the conventional and renewable energy industries, water and coastal management, and insurance and finance, among others, to anticipate and adapt to climate change and thus continue to contribute strongly to the national welfare and economic vitality. ClimBiz will be attractive and valuable to a wide range of customers here and in other nations.