Storylines

Storylines

The SRES storylines were constructed on two axes, i.e. the degree of globalization versus regionalization, and the degree of orientation on material versus social and ecological values. The four clusters were given simple names:

The storylines describe developments in many different social, economic, technological, environmental and policy dimensions. The storylines do not have a particular order, but they are listed alphabetically and numerically.

Range of futures

The scenarios could cover a wide range of futures, but not all possible futures. Specifically:

• The two axis do not pretend to be complete; such important aspects as governance and technology are either absent or implicit. Neither should any of these future worlds be interpreted as a blueprint of some probability or desirability. Some regions of the world will evolve in one direction, influencing the evolution of other regions. The scenarios will relate possible stories if certain regions, values and mechanisms become more dominant than others;
• Neither should the four scenario clusters be seen as a stable endpoint. They interact dynamically: if the forces characterizing one of them become dominant, counterforces will emerge and push on in other, new, directions. For instance, advocates of liberalization and privatization in accordance with the free-market ideology may be so successful that the resulting inequity and overexploitation will strengthen environmentalist and fundamentalist forces;
• So-called 'disaster' scenarios are not included;
• None of the scenarios include new explicit climate policies.