Abstract

This Special Issue presents the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), a set of five storylines on possible trajectories for human development and global environmental change during the 21st century. The SSPs represent an unique product, forming the most comprehensive set of scenarios for environm... Show moreThis Special Issue presents the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), a set of five storylines on possible trajectories for human development and global environmental change during the 21st century. The SSPs represent an unique product, forming the most comprehensive set of scenarios for environmental and sustainable development research produced so-far. Each SSPs consists of a narrative of future socio-economic development as well as quantitative data generated by state-of-the-art demographic, economic and integrated assessment models illustrating the narratives. The quantitative information includes projections on wide range of topics such population size, urbanization rates, income, energy use and production, agriculture and land use, emissions and climate change. Together, the set provides information on a wide ranges of futures ranging from those more consistent with sustainable development trends to futures characterized by a strong increase in resource consumption rates, environmental pressure and large challenges with respect to human development. The SSPs can be used in climate change research as well as in other research areas such as biodiversity and sustainable development. Show less