Sammanfattning
The impact of a CO2 stabilisation on the Swedish climate is investigated with the regional climate model RCA3 driven by boundary conditions obtained from a global coupled climate system model (CCSM3). The global model has been forced with observed greenhouse gas concentrations from pre-industrial conditions until today’s, and with an idealised further increase until the stabilisation level is reached. After stabilisation the model integration continues for another 150+ years in order to follow the delayed response of the climate system over a period of time. Results from the global and regional climate model are compared against observations and ECMWF reanalysis for 1961-1990. For this period, the global model is found to be too cold over Europe and with a zonal flow from the North Atlantic towards Europe that is too strong. The climate of the driving global model controls the climate of the regional model and the same deviations from one are thus inherited by the other. We therefore analyse the relative climate changes differences, or ratios, of climate variables between future's and today's climate. Compared to pre-industrial conditions, the global mean temperature changes by about 1.5oC as a result of the stabilisation at 450 ppmv equivalent CO2. Averaged over Europe, the temperature change is slightly larger, and it is even larger for Sweden and Northern Europe. Annual mean precipitation for Europe is unaffected, but Sweden receives more precipitation under higher CO2 levels. The inter-annual and decadal variability of annual mean temperature and precipitation does not change with any significant degree. The changes in temperature and precipitation are not evenly distributed with the season: the largest warming and increased precipitation in Northern Europe occurs during winter months while the summer climate remains more or less unchanged. The opposite is true for the Mediterranean region where the precipitation decreases mostly during summer. This also implies higher summer temperatures, but changes in winter are smaller. No substantial change in the wind climate over Europe is found.