Overview
The Climate Impact Lab’s approach integrates historical climate and socioeconomic data with empirical analysis to quantify climate change impacts and costs at local and sector levels. It produces evidence-based insights, including hyperlocal projections and the empirically-derived social cost of carbon. Finance professionals may use this for risk assessment, scenario analysis, and climate-cost quantification in decision-making.
Organisation behind the tool
The Climate Impact Lab is a research collaboration led by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), with contributions from climate scientists, economists, data engineers and risk analysts, and partnerships with academic and international organisations.
What the tool does
- Quantifies local and sectoral impacts of climate change using evidence-based, data-driven methods.
- Integrates historical climate data with socioeconomic information to derive empirical relationships.
- Produces hyperlocal projections of climate effects (e.g. heat, drought, sea-level rise).
- Provides datasets and analytical models (e.g. Human Climate Horizons, Global Downscaled Projections).
- Estimates the social cost of carbon and other greenhouse gases for cost-benefit analysis.
- Offers downloadable research datasets and tools supporting climate impact studies.
Target audience
Primary users include researchers, policymakers, economists and climate analysts. Other audiences comprise investors, public and private sector decision-makers, and sectors requiring climate risk data.
Relevance to finance professionals
- Risk assessment – Enables evaluation of exposure to climate hazards and economic impacts at regional or sector levels.
- ESG analysis – Supplies empirical data supporting environmental disclosures and climate-related reporting.
- Market/commodity insights – Offers projections that may inform analysis of agriculture, energy demand, labour productivity, and infrastructure risks.
- Investment context – Supports long-term investment decisions by quantifying future climate costs and informing adaptation and mitigation strategies.
