Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity

What climate trajectories and destinations are actually safe, and for whom? Which ones are unsafe and why? This Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse theme brings together interdisciplinary communities to determine pathways and “landings” that preserve habitability, well-being, and food security. We explore potential approaches to identify societal adaptation limits and changes that must be avoided. Additionally, pathways need to consider how to protect global biodiversity and natural ecosystem functioning, as well as indigenous people and cultures. This may involve finding a common framework for defining and measuring safety, giving attention to how various communities are individually affected, and should consider interactions between SDGs, adaptation, and mitigation measures, including geoengineering.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Exploration of diverse approaches to future scenarios that are more relevant outside the climate sphere.
  • Further dialogue on understanding and constraining individual risks, and assigning overall levels of risk to different potential future pathways.
  • Integrate Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse activities in the context of adaptation and resilience strategies across communities and ecosystems, and the impact of these and mitigation actions on SDGs, both regionally and globally.

This effort will draw on results from the other four Safe Landing Climates themes and WCRP activities more broadly. The lighthouse team is also interacting with teams from the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), consulting on how to go beyond AR6 and make a step-change in our integrated understanding of the risks associated with climate change, rather than a continued focus on siloed risks.

Working Group:

Neil Harris (Lead) Cranfield University, UK UK
Kevin Reed (Lead) Stony Brook University, USA USA
Peter Alexander University of Edinburgh UK
Ayansina Ayanlade Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria
Marco J. Cabrerizo University of Vigo and Centro de Investigación Mariña Spain
Mauricio Domínguez-Aguilar Autonomous University of Yucatan Mexico
Felix Donkor University of Education Winneba Ghana
Luke Harrington University of Waikato New Zealand
Natasha Kuruppu Asian Development Bank/Curtin University Malaysia Philippines
Lisa Miller Institute of Ocean Sciences/Fisheries and Oceans Canada Canada
Urooj Raja Loyola University Chicago USA


Contact: Narelle van der Wel - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Affiliate Members:

Godwin Paul Adams Energy and Climate Change Consultant India
Rajendran Shobha Ajin University of Florence / Resilience Development Initiative (RDI) Italy / Indonesia
Oliver Bothe Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon Germany
Sahana Bose Assam University Diphu Campus India
Kevin Bourne IHS Markit UK
Matthieu Carré IPSL-LOCEAN, CNRS France
Mohammed Yahya Alradi Eldaw Institute of Space Research and Aerospace Sudan
Urbano Fra.Paleo University of Extremadura Spain
Pierre Friedlingstein University of Exeter and Paris Sciences et Lettres University UK/France
Gabi Hegerl University of Edinburgh UK
Daniel Hill University of Leeds UK
Stewart Jennings University of Leeds UK
Michio Kawamiya Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) Japan
Timo Kelder Climate Adaptation Services Foundation Netherlands
Hyungjun Kim Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and University of Tokyo, Japan Korea/Japan
Nirmal Kavindra Kularathne University of Sri Jayewardenepura Sri Lanka
Burgess Langshaw Power Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo Canada
Gad Levy Pan-Ocean Remote Sensing Association/NorthWest Research Association USA
Thomas Lontzek RWTH Aachen University Germany
Denise Margaret Matias Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development Germany
Tara Meyer University of Montana USA
Estela Monteiro GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Germany
Jean Ometto Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) Brazil
Abdalla Osman Adam Abdalla University of Bahri Sudan
Kira Rehfeld Universität Tübingen Germany
Anastasia Romanou NASA-GISS / Columbia University USA
Athanasios Sfetsos National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos" Greece
Laura Suarez-Gutierrez Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Germany
Richard Wood Met Office UK
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick UNSW Sydney Australia
Tristram Walsh Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford United Kingdom
Pratik Kad NORCE Norwegian Research Centre / Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research Norway
Morteza Pakdaman Research Institute of Meteorological and Atmospheric Science (RIMAS), Climate Research Institute (CRI) Iran
Andrea Alessandri National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC) Italy
Mojisola Adeniyi University of Ibadan Nigeria