We’re all deluged by information, messaging, and story-telling about the future, ranging from wildly optimistic to outright catastrophic. As suggested by the quotes we’ve selected above, however, predicting the future is a slippery task at best. 

But while we may not be able to predict the future of climate change, we can identify many of the scientific, socioeconomic, and political variables and uncertainties that, in combination, will largely determine that future. We’ve termed these “Trillion Dollar Questions.”

There are a lot of important climate change questions that you can explore in the Climate Web, but that you won’t see characterized as Trillion Dollar Questions. For example, “will carbon pricing end up playing an important role in tackling climate change?” That’s a Trillion Dollar Question, because many observers see carbon pricing as fundamental to tackling climate change. On the other hand, “what’s the forecasted carbon price in 2030?” is important, but it’s not on the same level as a Trillion Dollar Question.

Our exploration of the Trillion Dollar Questions in the plex at left (or listed below if the plex is closed) is not intended to answer the questions per se, since most don’t have “an answer.” Our goal is to make it easy to explore the assumptions that explicitly or implicitly underlie climate change thinking and decision-making today. 

Digging Deeper into the Trillion Dollar Questions

As already noted, there is no “right answer” to Trillion Dollar Questions, but understanding the range of thinking around them is key to understanding and forecasting climate futures, climate risks, and climate solutions. 

The Premium Access Climate Web helps you explore Trillion Dollar Questions in more depth through Insights Pages, and in-depth “Topical Dashboards.” The Topical Dashboards, for example, pull together a lot of information you can use to dig deeper into each Trillion Dollar Question on your own. 

Note that the Climatographers can help you explore the Trillion Dollar Questions (and many other topics) through webinars and our on-line as well as live courses. Contact the Climatographers for more information.