emIAM v1.0: an emulator for Integrated Assessment Models using marginal abatement cost curves

TL;DR

This paper introduces emIAM v1.0, an emulator based on marginal abatement cost curves that efficiently replicates complex IAM outputs, enabling cost-effective climate pathway analysis with minimal computational resources.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel emulator, emIAM, which simplifies IAM outputs into MAC curves, facilitating faster climate-economy modeling and analysis.

Findings

emIAM accurately reproduces IAM emission outcomes

enables systematic exploration of climate pathways

reduces computational requirements for climate modeling

Abstract

We developed an emulator for Integrated Assessment Models (emIAM) based on a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve approach. Using the output of IAMs in the ENGAGE Scenario Explorer and the GET model, we derived a large set of MAC curves: ten IAMs; global and eleven regions; three gases CO2, CH4, and N2O; eight portfolios of available mitigation technologies; and two emission sources. We tested the performance of emIAM by coupling it with a simple climate model ACC2. We found that the optimizing climate-economy model emIAM-ACC2 adequately reproduced a majority of original IAM emission outcomes under similar conditions, allowing systematic explorations of IAMs with small computational resources. emIAM can expand the capability of simple climate models as a tool to calculate cost-effective pathways linked directly to a temperature target.