WITNESS: A "What if?" Tool for Exploring Policy Options and Climate Change
summary
WITNESS is an open-source Integrated Assessment Model that runs in Python, exposes modular interfaces for automated coupling, and already handles policy scenarios like carbon tax $100/ton or shifting 50% of fossil fuel subsidies to renewables, with 244,000 couplings in the full model. A two-week contributor workflow added a pandemic module (pull request #7) that changes population, GDP and labor via long‑COVID disability inputs. Uses Pint for unit safety, publishes sources and DOI-backed datasets, and runs on a decent laptop or server.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00WITNESS and OS Climate intro
- 3:15Policy makers vs climate models
- 10:04Integrated assessment challenges
- 13:41Economic modeling connectathon
- 17:34Health in economic models
- 20:51Pandemic data in climate models
- 24:40Physical risks from climate
- 28:19Advanced math for climate modeling
- 31:30Contribute to WITNESS
- 32:34WITNESS model variables demo
- 36:15Q&A on model validation
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