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Scaling climate services to enable effective adaptation action

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Title Scaling climate services to enable effective adaptation action
 
Creator Hansen, James
Furlow, John
Goddard, Lisa
Nissan, Hannah
Vaughan, Catherine
Rose, Alison
Fiondella, Francesco
Braun, Mélody
Steynor, Anna
Jack, Christoper
Chinowsky, Paul
Thomson, Madeleine C.
Baethgen, Walter E.
Dinku, Tufa
Senato, Asrat Yirgu
Do, Minh Phuong
Huq, Saleemul
Ndiaye, Ousmane
 
Subject agriculture
food security
climate change
climate change adaptation
 
Description Adaptation to anthropogenic climate change is the biggest challenge that humankind faces. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a synthesis of the state of the science, impacts, and policy, with a focus on long-term climate trends. However, the worst impacts of climate change are likely to come from its exacerbation of weather and climate variability. For example, higher temperatures in a particular region could lead to harsher droughts and more deadly heat waves. These are also the kinds of hazards that are regularly monitored and forecast by governments and institutions at the national, regional, and international scale.

This paper argues that climate services are a critical component of adaptation. Communities that benefit from
climate services will be better adapted to long-term climate change as well as the weather events and the year to-year variability it could make worse. Climate services involve the production, translation, transfer, and use of climate knowledge and information in relevant decision-making, policy and planninga. They involve far more than climate data, encompassing an understanding of the needs of decision makers and delivering useful information in ways it can be applied for better results. A well-functioning climate service can help decision-makers understand, anticipate, and manage climate-related risks across the range of relevant time scales, from days to decades, much in the way a national meteorological service (NMS) does for weather. Yet, in most of the world, climate services are not sufficiently developed, nor are they properly aligned with the needs of decision-makers in the sectors and systems that are most at risk. The urgency of the climate challenge calls for a critical examination of the current state of climate services relative to the needs of decision-makers; it also requires aggressive action to address long-standing obstacles to meeting those needs. While several decades of research, investment, and implementation provide a strong foundation for climate services, more deliberate action is needed to position climate services as essential to adaptation.
 
Date 2019-08-01
2019-11-15T15:27:34Z
2019-11-15T15:27:34Z
 
Type Report
 
Identifier Hansen J, Furlow J, Goddard L, Nissan H, Vaughan C, Rose A, Fiondella F, Braun M, Steynor A, Jack C, Chinowsky P, Thomson M, Baethgen W, Dinku T, Senato AY, Do MP, Huq S, Ndiaye O. 2019. Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action. Rotterdam, the Netherlands & Washington, DC, United States: Global Commission on Adaptation.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/105763
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher Global Commission on Adaptation