GS Katie Dagon will lead a discussion on the IAMs and she prompts our discussion below:
"Integrated Assessment Models for Climate: What are they, why are they important, and how can we make them better?"
"Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) couple the climate system and the economy, in an attempt to model 'end-to-end' the full range of climate change causes and effects. Understanding the physical science basis from GCMs only gets you halfway; many aspects of global change are intrinsically linked to social sciences. Projections from IAMs help shape climate policy, and in particular have been a factor in the recent estimates of the 'social cost of carbon'.
While I don't have a particular paper in mind for this discussion, I have attached some background reading to inspire us. Reilly et al. (2013) discuss challenges associated with IAMs in the context of the MIT IGSM. The White House technical support document provides an update on the social cost of carbon from a U.S. regulatory position. Finally, Glotter et al. (2014) provide a recent example of how improved knowledge of science, in particular ocean carbonate chemistry, can help improve an existing IAM."