A report by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program, Climate Information Needs for Financial Decision Making, recommends a simplified framework for the scientific community to use for communicating levels of certainty about climate and weather risks to the financial community.
Noting that a vast amount of information about climate risks relevant to financial analysis already exists “and could be used if characterized more clearly and compellingly,” the report recommends that scientists use three levels of certainty for communicating with user communities about future climate impacts: possible, probable and effectively certain. The report identifies how weather events exacerbate risks to financial investments in critical infrastructure and key resources. It recommends that scientists make improvements in climate projections in order to provide information at relevant scales for financial decision making. Follow-on activities by AMS to put its recommendations into practice are also specified in the report.