The Mediterranean near future, a perspective for climate science and climate services.

Paolo Ruti, ENEA, Italy - CLIM-RUN Scientific  Coordinator

The project  “Climate Local Information in the Mediterranean Region: Responding to Users Needs” (CLIM-RUN) began in March 2011 and aims to provide climate services throughout the Mediterranean, with specific focus on energy, tourism, ecosystem protection (wild fires) and coastal regions. Why do we need it? Since much of the Mediterranean is in a transition zone between the temperate climate of central-northern Europe and the arid climate of Northern Africa, even relatively small changes in climate forcing can have important effects on the region’s ecosystems, human activities, and human security.

The first CLIM-RUN stakeholder workshops

Clare Goodess, UEA, England

Stakeholder engagement and participation is central to the success of CLIM-RUN. Thus the first round of stakeholder workshops held between May and December 2011 have played a vital role in achieving the project aims and objectives during the first year. Generally speaking, they are considered to have been effective and appropriate mechanisms for stakeholder interaction and we are pleased that many stakeholders have agreed to continue and extend their participation in the project.

New climate modelling and new climate analysis tools

Samuel Somot, Météo-France/CNRM, France

In the CLIM-RUN project, the WP2 is in charge of developing and applying new climate modelling tools as well as new climate analysis tools in order to answer the stakeholder demands for climate services. This full bottom-up approach is quite new for most of the climate researchers involved in WP2, compared to former, less innovative EU projects dealing with climate modelling. However, we deeply believe that it prepares future climate service organisation system.

Stakeholders workshop Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy

Valentina Giannini, CMCC, Italy

The consulted stakeholders expressed high interest in climate services and in CLIM-RUN project activities. Preliminary lists of identified needs, uses of information, expectations, meteorological condition, monitoring and weather forecasts,   climate change scenarios are reported in this article. An improved communication system together with an integration of climate information and tools to support decisions have been indicated as very useful for their decision making  and planning activity.

Climate forecasts for the wind energy industry in the Mediterranean Region

Sandro Calmanti, ENEA, Italy,  Melanie Davies, IC3, Spain,  Alessandro Dell’Aquila, ENEA, Italy, Peter Schmidt, PIK, Germany

Background According to the World Wind Energy Association the total wind generation capacity worldwide has come close to cover 3% of the world's electricity demand in 20111. Thanks to the enormous resource potential and the relatively low costs of construction and maintenance of wind power plants, the wind energy sector will remain one of the most attractive renewable energy investment options.

First CLIM-RUN Workshop on Climate Services

Filippo Giorgi, ICTP, Trieste, Italy

This workshop will focus on the development of, and training for, a new research expertise that would lie at the interface between climate science and stakeholder application within the Climate Services framework.

Participation of CLIM-RUN to the 2nd International Conference on Climate Services in Brussels. 5,7-9-2012

Peter Schmidt, PIK, Germany

The second international conference on climate services (ICCS) will be held in Brussels from 5th to 7th September 2012. After the first conference last year in New York where the climate services partnership (CSP) was established, this years’ event will focus on how to facilitate the development of an International Climate Services Enterprise (CSE). The goal of such an innovative institution is to better support decision making processes in public administration and private business through the provision of scientific information. Key issues to be explored throughout the conference are related to the role climate services plays for different societal actors and sectors (finance, energy, agriculture, and food and water). From the CLIM-RUN energy work package, IC3 and PIK will participate in the conference. Among others, the relevance of climate services for the renewable energy sector will be highlighted and results from the energy case study workshops will be presented during the poster session. CLIM-RUN co-ordinator Paolo Ruti will also participate, together with UEA.

EMS/ECAC 2012 Lòdz, Poland

Clare Goodess, UEA, England

CLIM-RUN partners will participate in and contribute to the ‘Theme day: European Climate Services Capabilities - user needs and communication with stakeholders’ which is being held on 11 September as part of the EMS-ECAC 2012 meeting in Lódź, Poland (http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EMS2012/sessionprogramme/ECAC#SE – see SE3). Oral presentations by CLIM-RUN partners will include on overview of the challenges of developing stakeholder-led climate services and a summary of stakeholder needs identified in the wildfires case study. The concluding plenary will provide an opportunity for all participants to freely discuss how to bring coherence and structure to the development of climate services. Can we learn from each other? Do we have the right priorities?

A regional earth system perspective for Mediterranean climate information

Alessandro Dell'Aquila, ENEA, Italy

In the forthcoming MedCLIVAR conference in September in Madrid a contribution about the potential additional information, by analysing some key climatological indicators that an end-user may access by using a high-resolution regional coupled system, has been requested in the section  “Climate variability, trends and extremes”. The conference aims to offer a forum for dissemination and discussion of recent progress in Mediterranean climate research and to integrate expertise and promote exchange of information between climatologists, on the one hand, and hydrologists, ecologists, social scientists, public health experts, economists and agronomists on the other.