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Climate Change Research Initiatives in
EU Member States
Side event:
Research in response to the IPCC TAR
21 June, 2004, Bonn SB20
Dr. Frank McGovern,
Ireland (EU Presidency)
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!