Report Was Written by Pam Jordan, from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 2 Conference Proceedings 3 Conference Statement 9 Appendix 1: Agenda 11 Appendix 2: Side Events 13 Appendix 3: Participants 13 Appendix 4: Abstracts 20 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), under the auspices of the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Government of India, hosted the 6th International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS6) in Pune, India from February 11-13, 2020. Support was provided by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), through the UK Met’s Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) Programme, and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and carried out with support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and through bilateral funding agreements. For more information, please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. This report was written by Pam Jordan, from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University. NOTE FROM THE CSP SECRETARIAT The Secretariat , which is jointly run by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), would like to extend its gratitude to everyone who worked so diligently to make the conference happen, with extra thanks to IITM, UK Met, and CCAFS for the financial or in-kind support for the event. The event was a great success in gathering colleagues from all over the world, with a focus on the Asian continent and its state of climate services. The conference was an important opportunity for stocktaking of the past almost 10 years of work in the CSP, and paved the way for future cooperation. The coming 10 years will be decisive - the transformation towards climate neutrality has to be realized in large parts by 2030, if global warming shall be limited according to the goals of the Paris Agreement. SUPPORT The ICCS6 was sponsored and supported by the following institutions and organizations: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On February 11-13, 2020, over 200 attendees gathered from all over the world for the Sixth International Conference on Climate Services held in Pune, India. The event, which took place at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), was supported by India's Ministry of Earth Sciences, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Participants represented a diverse group of institutions from NGOs, international organizations, research institutions, and government agencies. Participants gathered to hear presentations on "advancing the knowledge and practice of climate services for climate resilience,” across a set of thematic topics on the state of the practice of climate services, the state of knowledge, and building resilience. ICCS is the premiere climate services event, organized jointly by the Global Framework for Climate Services, an international effort coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, and the Climate Services Partnership (CSP), an informal platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration. Climate services, which provide timely, tailored information and knowledge to decision-makers – generally in the form of tools, products, websites, or bulletins – are an important part of improving our capacity to manage climate-related risks. The conference convened the international community of practice to: • Assess the current state of play in the design, implementation, and results/ impact of climate services • Share knowledge, lessons learned, and emerging examples of good practices • Identify gaps and challenges to be addressed in future work • Promote coordination and collaboration among climate service stakeholders 2 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Conference presentations discussed topics related to the production and use of climate services in a range of social and economic sectors. A summary of the main themes is presented below, along with the conference statement and the abstracts. Building Resilience The presentations in this theme covered a wide range of topics. There are many opportunities for the agricultural sector to make use of climate services to improve farming practices and, in turn, increase yields and profitability. During this session, researchers noted the declining trend of ground water due to over-extraction of ground water, natural factors like low permeability of upper layer, topography with steep slope, and climatic factors like short duration intense spells of rainfall in recent years. In examples in India, both climate and changes in agricultural practices are causing low productivity by smallholder farmers. Solutions to these issues include increasing access to climate information and crop insurance. Climate information must be customized for the context and have integrated approaches for dissemination, including two-way feedback loops. National development planning that includes climate services is key to ensuring countries are able to adapt to climate change. The FAO and the World Bank are both developing tools that can be used to screen for climate risk. CCAFS South East Asia developed a framework for use in Vietnam to identify the risk zones based on normal to extreme rainfall conditions. In addition to tools, it is important to connect to the policy frameworks at the country level by using processes such as the National Framework for Climate Services. Country ownership of the process and multi-disciplinary collaborations are important for these processes to succeed and remain sustainable. The context of the use of climate information must be well understood in order to improve its use. This was demonstrated at the regional level in both East Africa and South Asia. One approach to deepening contextual knowledge is through understanding climate change risk perceptions. International collaboration aids in more quickly improving the use 3 of climate information and will enhance the economic opportunities they help to create. Institutions at all levels can support the development and use of climate services. In many indigenous societies, local institutions of different forms are important for decision making. Informal institutions and civil organizations, such as youth and women’s groups, religious entities, and student groups, play a role in transferring knowledge. These institutions could provide pathways for climate services at the local level. At the regional level in Europe, the Climateurope project is managing a framework to coordinate, integrate and support European research and innovation activities to increase engagement in climate services across many different types of stakeholders. At the national level, it is important for institutions implementing climate services to understand governance structures that support climate services. At the global level, there has been a shift towards humanitarian action in advance of, rather than after disaster occurrences. With the right forecast information, the impact-based forecasting (IBF) approach can provide concrete information about when and where disaster impacts are expected. State of Knowledge Presentations in the state of knowledge sessions included many different engaging topics. In order for climate services to be successful, a strong understanding is needed from both the user and producer. GFCS is supporting producers of climate services via a framework that will standardize climate service delivery and quality. The GFCS is engaging WMO Members (NMHS) and development partners to enhance capacity and in turn, improve development, resilience and adaptation outcomes. Regional organizations can also play a key role in capacity building at the NMHS level. Training resources are required on the user side to understand products such as seasonal forecasts, which are complex and 4 expressed as probabilities. The ASPIRE project has created videos that are relevant for audiences across the globe. Scaling up climate services requires improved understanding of climate risks, climate impacts in specific sectors and climate-resilient strategies, as well as better coordination of generation, translation, communication and use of climate services. National Academies for Climate Services provide a successful capacity building model to train a new generation of experts who understand the value of climate services and can use them effectively across sectors to manage climate risks and opportunities in the coming decades. An integrated strategic approach was adapted to reach out to farmers in Bihar, involving the understanding of decision processes in which climate information is used and tailoring climate information to address specific needs of farmers. These examples taught us that proper communication is needed between users and producers, adaptation needs to be context specific, and providers need to be able to communicate clearly about any shortcomings of their information. Improved climate projections will lead to improved decision making, when they are well communicated and understood. Research targeted at improving projections in different parts of the world were shared during this session. Some of their findings are as follows. The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) is a major predictive source in the sub seasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescale. Sri