Preliminary Guidelines for Assessing Impacts of Climate Change

This report aims to provide preliminary guidelines on methods of climate impact assessment. It outlines a basic framework for the study of climate-environment-society interactions, with a particular emphasis on assessing the impacts of possible future changes in climate due to the enhanced greenhouse effect. Experience with evaluating the social and economic impacts of climatic change is at present limited. This report is therefore a preliminary one. It is desirable that future versions address these topics in more detail. A range of methods is identified at each step. Where possible the merits and drawbacks of different methods are discussed briefly, with some suggestions on their selection and use. Guidance is also offered on the organization of research and the communication of results.