‘SSP’ stands for Shared Socio-economic Pathways. SSPs are the latest version of ‘what if’ scenarios used to explore the consequences of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. SSPs are needed because we can’t know what future greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere will be, but we know the higher they are the more warming will occur.
Each SSP outlines ways the world might change in the future, including different types of energy generation, rates of population growth, economic development and land uses. These lead to different levels of greenhouse gas emissions over time.
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- Understanding SSPs (PDF 185 KB)