Bridging climate and biodiversity in Integrated Assessment Models

PRISMA Webinar
28 September 2026 , h.12:00 CEST
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Moderator: Johannes Emmerling, CMCC, Italy

Biodiversity loss and climate change crises are deeply interlinked. However, potential solutions and research to support decision-making for these crises have largely been developed independently. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have the potential to bridge the gap between climate change and biodiversity conservation policy evaluation, given their integrated, interdisciplinary nature and their capacity to represent both direct and indirect effects of policies. In this presentation, we discuss the potential of IAMs to assess climate-biodiversity-economy interactions. We review how biodiversity is currently represented in IAMs, showing that the literature splits into two largely disconnected approaches — one tracking biodiversity indicators such as species loss, the other modeling how biodiversity loss feeds back into the economy — and that important ecosystems, particularly marine and freshwater systems, remain largely absent from both. We close by outlining methodological directions to reconcile these approaches and close these gaps.

ORGANIZED BY:
PRISMA project

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101081604 – PRISMA. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.