In a modular SC-CO2 framework, the primary purpose of the climate module is to take the outputs of the socioeconomic module (such as emissions of CO2 and other climate forcing agents) and estimate their effect on physical climate variables (such as a time series of temperature change) at the spatial and temporal resolution required by the damages module. Thus, it must (1) translate CO2 (and other greenhouse gas1) emissions into atmospheric concentrations, accounting for the uptake of CO2 by the land biosphere and the ocean; (2) translate concentrations of CO2 (and other climate forcing agents) into radiative forcing; (3) translate forcing into global mean surface temperature response, accounting for heat uptake by the ocean; and (4) generate other climatic variables that may be needed by the damages module. Those other variables may include regional temperature, regional precipitation, statistics of weather extremes, global and regional sea level, and ocean pH. In so doing, it must accurately represent within a probabilistic framework the current understanding of the climate and carbon cycle systems and associated uncertainties.
National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine, 2017. Climate Module. In: Valuing climate damages: updating estimation of the social cost of carbon dioxide, pp 85-128. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.17226/24651. Chapter.
