NN#8: Realistic Modeling

In NN#8, Chris finally invites a guest to join the podcast rather than just sharing his own views. He cordially welcomes Dr. Emily Grubert to the show to discuss their respective complaints about deficiencies in energy and climate modeling, and how they might be cured. Sources Emily Grubert’s personal website Emily Grubert, “The state of energy transition research and the need for fossil phase-out: evidence from Environmental Research Letters,” Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 21, No. 14, July 20, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae8610. Joshua Lappen and Emily Grubert, “Fossil Energy Minimum Viable Scale,” Science, Vol. 386, No. 6734, January 29, 2026. DOI: 10.1126/science.aea0972. TT#8: Fixing Climate Communications, Transition Times, June 19, 2026. NN#6: Backsliding on Climate, Transition Times, July 2, 2026. TT#10: The Heat is On, Transition Times, July 7, 2026. TT#12: A Failure to Communicate, Transition Times, July 31, 2026. TT#5: CCS in the spotlight (again), Transition Times, May 29, 2026. NN#4: Carbon Capture Follies, Transition Times, May 29, 2026. Van Vuuren, D. P., O'Neill, B. C., Tebaldi, C., Sanderson, B. M., Chini, L. P., Friedlingstein, P., Hasegawa, T., Riahi, K., Govindasamy, B., Bauer, N., Eyring, V., Fall, C. M. N., Frieler, K., Gidden, M. J., Gohar, L. K., Högner, A., Jones, A. D., Kikstra, J., King, A., Knutti, R., Kriegler, E., Lawrence, P., Lennard, C., Lowe, J., Mathison, C., Mehmood, S., Nicholls, Z., Prado, L. F., Zhang, Q., Rose, S. K., Ruane, A. C., Sandstad, M., Schleussner, C.-F., Seferian, R., Sillmann, J., Smith, C., Sörensson, A. A., Panickal, S., Tachiiri, K., Vaughan, N., Vishwanathan, S. S., Yokohata, T., Zecchetto, M., and Ziehn, T.: The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 (ScenarioMIP-CMIP7), Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 2627–2656, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-2627-2026, 2026. Zeke Hausfather, Glen Peters, and Piers Forster, “On the death of RCP8.5,” The Climate Brink, May 18, 2026. Robert McSweeney, Cecilia Keating, Zeke Hausfather, “Factcheck: Trump’s false claims about the IPCC and ‘RCP8.5’ climate scenario,” Carbon Brief, May 19, 2026.