PNNL

Abstract

This Core Model Proposal (CMP-411) introduces the GCAM Macro-Economic Module KLEAM (Capital-Labor-Energy-Agriculture-Materials), an extension of the existing GCAM-Macro (KLEM) framework that explicitly integrates primary agriculture, energy systems, and materials production within a unified macroeconomic accounting and market-clearing structure. Building on prior macroeconomic and socioeconomic updates in GCAM (CMP-332, CMP-399, CMP-410), this proposal advances the representation of labor, capital, savings, and investment across agriculture, energy, and materials sectors, enabling more consistent feedback between sectoral production decisions and aggregate economic outcomes (e.g., GDP, capital rental prices, and wage rates). In addition essential data updates in agriculture (crops, livestock, and forestry) and socioeconomic modules, key advancements include: (i) explicit representation of labor and capital inputs in primary agricultural sectors with technology- and region-level value tracing; (ii) updated capital cost and investment tracking for primary agriculture, energy supply and energy service sectors; (iii) extensions to the materials nested CES production function to incorporate agricultural nonfood services and revised energy service value assumptions; (iv) improved treatment of final consumption (including agricultural food services), trade balance, and national accounting consistency; and (v) new mechanisms for labor mobility, savings–investment market clearing, capital price feedbacks, and aggregate GDP responses. These advances establish a more internally consistent macroeconomic structure for GCAM and lay the foundation for deeper integration of human-Earth systems.