Kate Ricke: Climate change scientist,
- Integrates tools from the physical and social sciences to analyze climate policy problems.
- Accounting for uncertainty and heterogeneity—both in the effects of climate change and in preferences for how to address them.
Research methods
My research combines quantitative modeling and large data set analysis techniques applied to physical and social systems. My training is multi-disciplinary, and I have collaborated and published with physicists, engineers, geochemists, economists and political scientists.
Topics
- The regional climate effects and international relations implications of solar geoengineering
- Decadal climate variability’s influence on international climate agreements.
- Uncertainty assessment
Backgrounds
I am an Assistant Professor at the University of California - San Diego, with appointments in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I am a graduate of the PhD program in Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and received my BS in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, with a minor in Public Policy, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
3 New publishes prep. for AGU fall meeting:
GC53H-1217 - The precipitation wildcard(降水通配符): diagnosing the sources of uncertainty about precipitation’s impact on welfare
GC53H-1216 - Many Roads to Paris: The Uncertain Aerosol Emissions Implied by National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets
Friday, 13 December 2019 13:40 - 18:00
Moscone South - Poster Hall
Abstract
Global climate change mitigation policies like the Paris Agreement focus on reducing greenhouse gas concentrations by country-specific commitments to reduce equivalent CO2 (CO2e) emissions. CO2e is calculated using emissions of well mixed greenhouse gases. However, reductions in CO2e are accompanied by reductions in other, short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) that impact both air quality and climate. The type and magnitude of SLCP reduction depends on the relative emission of SLCPs and CO2e, which is largely a function of the location and economic sector (e.g. energy, transportation, etc.). Country-level implementation of CO2e reductions can therefore result in different climate and air quality co-benefits or costs depending on where and how CO2e is reduced. We use historical gridded emissions inventories from CMIP6 inputs to show how the ratio of non-CO2e to CO2e emissions are highly variable between countries and over time. We also quantify bounds for these differences using emission estimates from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and emissions reduction commitments from the Paris Agreement. The figure shows emissions of black carbon (BC) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) normalized by CO2e that result from obtaining the same planned CO2e reductions from different economic sectors. The large variability implies that proposed reductions in the long-lived greenhouse gas emissions can lead to very different aerosol burdens (with associated temperature effects) depending on how the targets are met. For example, the figure demonstrates that reducing CO2e from Canada’s most aerosol-intensive sectors would yield 64% fewer SO2 emissions than if CO2e reductions were made from the least aerosol-intensive sectors.
GC11A-03 - Global estimates of human migration from projected climate change
Monday, 9 December 2019 08:00 - 10:00
Moscone West - 2020, L2
Abstract
An established cause for human migration is the search for better economic opportunities, with possible triggers from meteorological changes and events. Conflict is another robust driver of internal displacement in human migration studies, and shiftingrisk exposures will drive migration responses to temporary and acute natural disasters. We apply these empirically derived relationships between environmental change and human migration to climate change projections (e.g. CMIP5 models) and expand them globally. In estimating these future global patterns of human migration, we identify areas that may require more data and new research, for example potential ways to assess the effects of institutional responses and feedbacks with cross-border migration. We discuss the implications of this work for assembling a modular framework that integrates existing empirical work on climate change and human migration with new theoretical models of displacement and immigration. By bringing together work across disciplines, this project attempts to highlight outstanding research questions for both the scientific and human migration studies communities.
