The Climate Web's more than 3,500 Index Entries, all linked together into their own “knowledge web,” serve as “front doors” to hundreds of climate-related topics. Note that the role and functionality of Index Entries has changed significantly: WHAT’S NEW? 

Index Basics 

Index Entries are organized vertically, so any Parent or Child thought to an Index Entry will be an Index Entry in its own right. This means that you can click your way through the Index, and through the entire topic of climate change, accessing more general topics as Parent thoughts and more granular ideas as Child thoughts. You can get the idea via the screenshot below.

Index Entries link you to associated topical materials through Jump thoughts to the left of an Index Entry. These might be topical headings for broader topical Index Entries, or they might be individual sources and other materials for much more granular Index Entries. You can see a variety of materials and topical headings to the left of the central Index Entry thought in the screenshot below

Index Entries serve as topical front doors to topic, allowing you to dig into the topic in three different ways. The first is through subsidiary Index Entries.  The second is through the Jump thoughts to the left of an Index Entry. And the third is through the Notes Field normally visible to the right of the “Plex.”  You can see that in the screenshot below. 

The Notes Field may provide a general introduction to a topic, and point you to all kinds of relevant resources that might not be part of the initial “Plex.” 

1. 50+ Deep Dive Index Entries serve as topical roadmaps for key topics covered in the Climate Web, helping you jump-start your exploration of those topics. Not all of them are currently equally developed. Good examples include: 

• I:SCCSocialCostofCarbon (Deep Dive)
• I:CarbonPricing (Deep Dive)
• I:IAMsIntegratedAssessmentModels (Deep Dive)

2. Mid-Level Index Entries. These Index Entries link you to a lot of organized materials, but don’t include the same level of “topical roadmap” that you’ll find with Deep Dive Index Entries. Mid-Level Index Entries are often directly linked to a Deep Dive Index Entry. To the extent Insights Pages and Dashboards are specifically relevant to a Mid-Level Index Entry, we’ll try to point you to them. 

3. Granular Index Entries. The focus of these Index Entries tends to be quite granular, allowing materials specific to very narrow topics to be organized.  They may point you to just a few resources as Jump thoughts, and not include any story-telling. 

Note that some thoughts formatted as Index Entries, but not colored yellow as actual Index Entries are, are there just to help you jump from one topic in the Index to another that might be less directly related but still relevant.

A Great Way to Navigate the Climate Web

All Index Entries are preceded by an "I:" and lack spaces in the body of the Index Entry. This doesn’t impede your ability to understand its meaning, but makes it a lot easier to Search specifically for Index Entries which are the easiest way to rapidly navigate 

The topic of carbon pricing, for example, has an Index Entry I:CarbonPricing. Searching for that will get you to the Carbon Pricing Deep Dive Index Entry instantly. Searching just for "carbon pricing," on the other hand, would generate thousands of results to sort through.

If we tried to link every Index Entry to every other Index Entry of potential relevance, many would have dozens of Parent and Child thoughts, making the Index confusing to navigate. Instead, try clicking on Parent or Child Index Entries that seem relevant, and see what else shows up. In many cases you'll find specifically what you are looking for within a click or two of where you started.