Assembling the climate story: use of storyline approaches in climate-related science

Scenario-based approaches, including the concept of storylines, were introduced in climate science to provide unity of discourse, integrate the physical and socioeconomic components of phenomena, and make climate evolution more tangible. The use of storylines by multiple scholar communities and the novelty of some of its applications renders the concept ambiguous nonetheless, because the term hides behind a wide range of understandings and methodologies that often collide ontologically and epistemically. This semi-systematic literature review identifies three approaches that use storylines as a keystone concept: scenarios –familiar for their use in IPCC reports, discourse-analytical approaches, and physical climate storylines. After screening all peer-reviewed articles that mention climate and storylines, we selected 270 articles, with 158, 55, and 57 in each category. Results indicate that each community works with different methods and understandings. Moreover, these approaches have received criticism in their assembly of storylines: either for lacking explicitness or for the homogeneity of expertise involved. We propose that cross-pollination amongst the approaches could improve the goal to support climate action. Good practices are the involvement of a broader range of disciplines, use of mixed-methods, storyline assessment against a wider set of quality criteria, and stakeholder participation in key stages of the process.