Climate projection checklist for service providers.
| Contextual information | Check |
| State the purpose(s) of the chosen climate projections at the start of the report | |
| Justify the choice(s) of emissions pathways and climate model sensitivity | |
| Justify the choice(s) of GCM(s) or climate model ensemble | |
| State and justify the choice of the baseline period | |
| Explain the choice of short-listed variables | |
| Historic data quality assurance and analysis | |
| State any recognized strengths and weaknesses of the data sources | |
| Provide complete details for historic data (e.g., site locations and years of record) | |
| Document any known changes in site, instrument, or observer practices | |
| Perform quality assurance, homogeneity, and stationarity checks on all data | |
| Sanity check extreme values against independent sources (e.g., media reports) | |
| State and justify any extreme value distributions (including for GCM output) | |
| Provide confidence intervals for all extreme value estimates | |
| Regional climate downscaling and derived indices | |
| State any recognized strengths and weaknesses of the chosen GCMs/RCMs | |
| Avoid mixing different scale GCM and RCM projections in the same ensemble | |
| Justify the choice of downscaling methods in terms of fitness for purpose(s) | |
| Provide full details and supporting references for all downscaling methods | |
| Provide full equations and supporting references for all derived variables | |
| Use GCM outputs in ways that are internally consistent (avoid pick-and-mix) | |
| Acknowledge when GCM/RCM ocean grid cells are used for terrestrial sites | |
| Itemize all components of regional sea level rise, justify omitted components | |
| Acknowledge uncertainty in derived indices (e.g., modelled evapotranspiration) | |
| State the percentile of extreme value estimates | |
| Compare historic data and GCM/RCM output using periods of overlap | |
| Presentation | |
| Proof-read documents for typographic errors and cite all literature sources | |
| State climate model details and emissions scenarios in figure and table legends | |
| Apply most appropriate quantiles (not just the mean) for the intended use | |
| Use ‘could’ rather than ‘will’ when referring to uncertain climate model projections | |
| Avoid undue precision when reporting climate change projections | |
| Contextual information | Check |
| State the purpose(s) of the chosen climate projections at the start of the report | |
| Justify the choice(s) of emissions pathways and climate model sensitivity | |
| Justify the choice(s) of GCM(s) or climate model ensemble | |
| State and justify the choice of the baseline period | |
| Explain the choice of short-listed variables | |
| Historic data quality assurance and analysis | |
| State any recognized strengths and weaknesses of the data sources | |
| Provide complete details for historic data (e.g., site locations and years of record) | |
| Document any known changes in site, instrument, or observer practices | |
| Perform quality assurance, homogeneity, and stationarity checks on all data | |
| Sanity check extreme values against independent sources (e.g., media reports) | |
| State and justify any extreme value distributions (including for GCM output) | |
| Provide confidence intervals for all extreme value estimates | |
| Regional climate downscaling and derived indices | |
| State any recognized strengths and weaknesses of the chosen GCMs/RCMs | |
| Avoid mixing different scale GCM and RCM projections in the same ensemble | |
| Justify the choice of downscaling methods in terms of fitness for purpose(s) | |
| Provide full details and supporting references for all downscaling methods | |
| Provide full equations and supporting references for all derived variables | |
| Use GCM outputs in ways that are internally consistent (avoid pick-and-mix) | |
| Acknowledge when GCM/RCM ocean grid cells are used for terrestrial sites | |
| Itemize all components of regional sea level rise, justify omitted components | |
| Acknowledge uncertainty in derived indices (e.g., modelled evapotranspiration) | |
| State the percentile of extreme value estimates | |
| Compare historic data and GCM/RCM output using periods of overlap | |
| Presentation | |
| Proof-read documents for typographic errors and cite all literature sources | |
| State climate model details and emissions scenarios in figure and table legends | |
| Apply most appropriate quantiles (not just the mean) for the intended use | |
| Use ‘could’ rather than ‘will’ when referring to uncertain climate model projections | |
| Avoid undue precision when reporting climate change projections | |