Modelling of climate indicators - GCAM

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Alert-warning.png Note: The documentation of GCAM is 'under review' and is not yet 'published'!

Model Documentation - GCAM

Corresponding documentation
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Model information
Model link
Institution Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Global Change Research Institute (PNNL, JGCRI), USA, https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/jgcri.
Solution concept General equilibrium (closed economy)GCAM solves all energy, water, and land markets simultaneously
Solution method Recursive dynamic solution method
Anticipation GCAM is a dynamic recursive model, meaning that decision-makers do not know the future when making a decision today. After it solves each period, the model then uses the resulting state of the world, including the consequences of decisions made in that period - such as resource depletion, capital stock retirements and installations, and changes to the landscape - and then moves to the next time step and performs the same exercise. For long-lived investments, decision-makers may account for future profit streams, but those estimates would be based on current prices. For some parts of the model, economic agents use prior experience to form expectations based on multi-period experiences.

GCAM climate indicators are produced by the Hector Model. Indicators produced by GCAM include radiative forcing and CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions. CO2e emissions are obtained by taking the emission outputs of radiatively active gases of GCAM and weighting them by Global Warming Potential (GWP) coefficients.