Estimating Earth's Temperature Response with Transformed and Augmented OLS

Abstract

The long-term relationship between radiative forcing and surface temperature is imperative for predicting the impacts of climate change. This study employs multicointegration to characterize this relationship and uses Transformed and Augmented Ordinary Least Squares (TAOLS) to estimate the model. The main goal is to estimate the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS), defined as the global mean surface air temperature increase following a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Our results show that the ECS lies between $2.12^{\circ}$C and $2.49^{\circ}$C, which is lower than the existing maximum likelihood estimate of $2.8^{\circ}$C. TAOLS offers a more robust and accessible tool for climate research, providing novel insights for ongoing debates about Earth's warming trajectory.