Climate
The Climate Institute aims to advance the fundamental science required to thrive on a warming planet. It seeks to understand the implications of climate mitigation strategies for the planet, and to ensure that such planning takes into account Earth system feedbacks and constraints - across the land, atmosphere, and oceans. Our climate programs support the transformational and transdisciplinary research networks required for planning and evaluation of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies, and they generate the necessary data, tools, platforms and innovative technologies to understand our planet.
The Virtual Earth Systems Research Institute (VESRI) aims to enhance the accuracy and credibility of climate models by supporting transformational research projects focused on improving the representation of essential processes across scales in Earth systems models. Together, these projects aim to improve global models to ultimately make climate projections more useful for decision-making and planning.
OBVI aims to refine controls on ocean carbon cycling and ecosystem resilience by advancing our understanding of both regional and global ocean biogeochemistry and developing integrated observations, models, and platforms. In partnership with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, OBVI seeks to tackle some of the most challenging biogeochemical data and modeling problems across systems and scales by developing robust approaches for ocean data collection, integration, and interpretation.
The Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC) aims to support transformational research that tackles knowledge gaps and targets uncertainty reduction in carbon cycle science on time scales that are relevant for informing effective climate policy and enabling solutions. Specifically, VICC will support the scientific research required to improve the accuracy of global carbon budget measurements by an order of magnitude (getting it to 0.1 GT CO2/yr, vs. the 1 GT CO2/yr inaccuracy today).
VICC will achieve this 10x improvement in accuracy by funding research projects across three primary areas:
• Track carbon cycle outcomes on a 1-3 year timescale needed to assess effectiveness in decarbonization policies and investments (vs. ~10 year lag today)
• Anticipate and evaluate the potential for abrupt changes and surprises (e.g., methane release through permafrost thaw) in the carbon cycle
• Project the future impact of implemented or proposed decarbonization actions, taking into account feedbacks from the Earth system
The Virtual Institute for Earth’s Water (VIEW) will support research needed for a sustainable global water future. This encompasses quantifying and addressing sustainable water use, improving projections of freshwater resources, preparing for climate extremes, and quantifying linkages to ecosystem resilience, the carbon cycle, and climate change mitigation including the food/energy/water nexus. Schmidt Sciences intends to support multiple transformational research projects that will be crucial in informing freshwater management, producing results that are poised to support decision-making worldwide within the next decade.
The Energy & Decarbonization Modeling Program aims to develop computational models to evaluate various pathways for reducing carbon emissions and guide resource allocation decisions. We prioritize regions expected to be major carbon emitters in the near term. Our aim is to support robust modeling that connects high-level national strategies with on-the-ground technology implementation, considering the multifaceted impacts of energy transitions, including water, land, and material needs.
One of our main goals is to advance decarbonization modeling in specific countries, addressing their unique regional challenges. India is our initial focus, where we are supporting Academic Exchanges in which researchers collaborate across academic institutions to produce precise, practical insights on energy transition strategies.
