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Background

IAMs are computational models that produce scenarios of economy, energy system, land use, and greenhouse-gas emissions developments over time, across regions, and under different policy assumptions. Large ensembles of such scenarios by multiple model families underpin major scientific assessments such as the IPCC reports.

Scenarios are often validated in the process of producing new scenarios or when in the process of collecting and assess existing scenario ensembles. Specifically, scenarios are often checked against empirical observations, near-term projections, and sustainability targets to identify scenarios that are outdated, internally inconsistent, technically infeasible, or ecologically undesirable. This package provides a versioned, machine-readable set of such validation criteria so that different research groups can apply the same standards.

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See the summary page for a full overview of all criteria definitions.