Transcript Climate Change Research Initiatives in EU Member States

Climate Change
Research Initiatives in
EU Member States
Dr. Frank McGovern,
Ireland (EU Presidency)
Side event:
Research in response to the IPCC TAR
21 June, 2004, Bonn SB20
Research capacity in EU:
Global and European level
• Large research capacity in Europe
– Several centres of global importance in climate research
e.g. Hadley Centre, UK; Max Planck, Germany; IIASA,
Austria; CNRS, Meteo France, France; KNMI,
Netherlands; Rossby Centre, Sweden; and others…
• Several powerful global climate change models
• At European level, very significant support for CC
research from DG Research, particularly under
Global Change and Ecosystems programme within
the 6th Framework Programme.
Research capacity in EU:
Member State level
• Extensive, diverse, adapted to national and regional
needs and interests
• Significant socio-economic research on adaptation and
mitigation; development of indicators of climate
sensitivity; increasing capacity for regional modelling
of agricultural, ecosystem, social, economic impacts of
CC
• Several important regional models have been developed
– extensive work on downscaling (e.g. Hungary,
Ireland…)
• Co-operation with non-EU countries including
developing countries (Italy and China, Finland and a
number of DCs, Netherlands and Bhutan…)
Responding to the Gaps
• Main issues of WG2 on Adaptation
Information Needs
– Vulnerability, adaptive capacity, long-term
monitoring systems, data availability and
access, socio-economic factors influence
exposures of different communities, modelling,
limits to adaptation…
Responding to the Gaps
• Main issues of WG3 on Mitigation - Gaps in
Knowledge
– Regional and sector specific potential and costs of
mitigation options as well as barriers
– Identification of opportunities in area of social
innovation leading to decreased GHG emissions
– Capacity building: Research, integrated assessment,
modelling…etc
– Synergies between mitigation, adaptation and
sustainable development
– Equity issues
How are EU countries responding to
these gaps?
• Adaptation
– Regional Modelling: UK, Germany, Hungary, Ireland
and others
– Local capacity development: Combination of
Local/Regional/National decision levels in the French
National Heat Wave Plan
– Extreme events: e.g. Netherlands, UK
– Socio-economic factors: e.g. Italy, Germany, Finland
– Long-term monitoring: e.g. Sweden, Italy
– Vulnerability and risk assessment: e.g Italy, UK
– More…
How are EU countries responding to
these gaps?
• Mitigation
– Understanding technology diffusion: Finland
(involvement of National Technology Agency)
– Vulnerability modelling: Potsdam
– Scenario analysis: IIASA
– Developing research capacity esp. in
developing countries: many co-operations of
this type…
Climate change research: taking
place in many forms
• Difficult to characterise CC research in EU!
• CC research in EU countries is taking place
in many forms,
• Some countries have extensive research on
forestry management, alternative energy
sources, … all are relevant to CC, but are
not explicitly and directly being done for
that reason.
Retaining independence
of EU research
• Caution against imposing research priorities on
countries
• Independence of research at country level should
be protected
• WG2 and WG3’s moves towards prioritising
climate change research are well-intentioned, but
should not be allowed to compromise the valuable
independence and diversity of research going on
in EU countries.
Thank you for your attention!