EGU24 Townhall: Information for society: from CMIP to decision makers

View Townhall on EGU24 website to add to your schedule by following this link.

The challenges of producing information for society based on climate science include everything from data access to the treatment of uncertainty and expert judgment over what constitutes robust, decision-ready information. WCRP programs tasked with supporting the production and use of climate data are interested in understanding the range of practices employed by the EGU community over this entire chain. We expect that there exist barriers relating to technical challenges, (lack of) process understanding, communicating with decision-makers about how to make sense of divergent data products, and resource limitations on all of the above.

In the first portion of the townhall we will focus on data access — where do you start to produce actionable information? Representatives from CMIP and CORDEX will present some background and then facilitate discussions about data access methods currently employed, and your suggestions for improvement. We are also interested in what other products form the starting point for some users, as well as what motivates you to run your own simulations with stakeholders in mind.

In the second portion of the townhall we will shift to facilitated small-group discussions on the challenges of producing information for society that is both robust and useful for decision-making. The WCRP Regional Information for Society (RIfS) project wants to hear from EGU members on everything from the analysis and post-processing tools you employ, to how you handle issues in the data, represent uncertainty, and work to provide information to decision-makers. We will briefly present some of the issues and then move into facilitated discussion. We are especially interested in if/how you approach co-production, whether it is for generalized climate services or bespoke projects in a particular region and sector that combine with other non-climate data. How do you communicate with stakeholders who are confused by the sometimes-divergent array of data products and services available?

Information gathered in the townhall will be summarised in a technical report by the CMIP, CORDEX, and RIfS International Project Offices (IPOs) and shared with participants, as well as informing ongoing work across our projects to improve data access and build consensus on the production of robust information for regional decision-making.

Please note, you must be registered to EGU24 to attend this event

Event slides

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