Vulnerability of a bio-based economy to global climate change impacts

The vulnerability of a bio-based economy depends on both direct regional climate change impacts particularly on agriculture and forestry, and indirect impacts through changes in global bio-based commodity trade. Therefore, we develop an Integrated Global2Austria Impact Model Framework to (i) assess the vulnerability of the Austrian bio-based industries considering direct and indirect impacts of global climate change, and (ii) provide policy guidelines for regional adaptation as well as to outline major uncertainties in the process of transition towards a bio-based economy in Austria. The model framework integrates a broad set of disciplinary data and models and is applied on the scale of 23 world regions, 27 EU Member States and on all Austrian NUTS3 regions. Stakeholders including policy makers, representatives of the industry, and of the civil society are being integrated into the project through a series of stakeholder workshops to facilitate the applicability and use of results.