Climate change is global - but affects people locally. An EU-funded project is giving Mediterranean businesses and local governments the information they need to plan ahead by taking the impact of local climate change into account. The project is also helping to build a Europe-wide climate information service.
The Mediterranean area is particularly sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the region will experience rising sea levels, an increasing number of extreme weather events – including storms and drought – and more frequent wild fires, affecting society, locals and visitors alike.
Local businesses and policymakers need accurate, tailored information to plan for these events so they can adapt to the expected impacts. The EU-funded CLIM-RUN project developed methods to improve the details and the reliability of climate information for the Mediterranean area and to communicate it in an effective way to local users.
CLIM-RUN designed its method to support a future World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) climate services network designed for the entire planet.
The project team followed the guidelines of the Global Framework for Climate Services established by the WMO and adapted climate change models to needs identified by local businesses and policymakers. Users then access the modelling results via CLIM-RUN’s web portal, which relates the models’ results to their specific industries and regions.
To help users benefit as much as possible from the climate service, the team also developed information sheets explaining how they produced their predictions and how to interpret the CLIM-RUN data.
More infromaton is available in the original feature article posted on teh DG Reaseach and Innovation website.