It is important to curb the rate of global warming over the next few decades in addition to limiting long-term maximum warming. For example, the ability of societies and ecosystems to adapt to climate change will decrease with a faster rate of warming, likely to be unprecedented even on geological time scales.

This session will highlight: (1) physical drivers of near-term warming rates, (2) ecological and societal impacts of different levels of warming rates, and (3) fast mitigation strategies to limit warming rates. We invite submissions of observational and modeling studies that advance understanding of upcoming warming rates. We welcome research relating to short-lived climate forcers including aerosol unmasking; decadal prediction and internal variability; physical, societal, and ecological impacts such as damages to agriculture, health, and habitats; adaptation efficiency; and mitigation assessments based on climate policy goals as well as idealized analyses.