Climate Services across the Tropics: Science, applications and information in the Caribbean (and opportunities for collaboration across the Pacific) — Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

Climate Services across the Tropics: Science, applications and information in the Caribbean (and opportunities for collaboration across the Pacific)

Climate Services across the Tropics: Science, applications and information in the Caribbean (and opportunities for collaboration across the Pacific) (#221)

ROGER S. PULWARTY ¹

NOAA, BOULDER, USA, United States

The increasing demand for improved knowledge and information across the weather-climate continuum is well-documented. To help meet these needs, the 3rd U.N. World Climate Conference (2009) launched the Global Framework on Climate Services (GFCS). This presentation will outline the evolution of climate services design and implementation since the inception of the GFCS. Cases will be drawn from several regions across the Tropics with special emphasis on small island environments. Risk-based responses and resilience development are not neat linear progressions with clear end-points, but parts of ongoing processes as new knowledge on emergent risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities arise. Most climate services successes to date, stem from advances in three areas, (1) the development of analytical tools that facilitate climate prediction and monitoring applications including risk and vulnerability assessments, (2) building on already existing institutional capabilities at different scales, and; (3) developing and improving climate services through regionally-supported efforts engaging public and private sectors, and local communities. For the Caribbean, efforts include improvements in observational networks and in understanding regional climate dynamics, developing climate applications prototypes in water resources, agriculture, food security, financial services, and early warning for disaster risk reduction, coordination through outlook fora, and mainstreaming information into regional and national environmental and development plans. Central to the success of these processes has been the development and evolution of regional research institutions that leverage resources for learning, including physical and social science research, and capacity development, leading to a new cadre of climate risk management professionals in the region capable of helping to bridge “the last mile”. The presentation will focus on innovative work of these, and other institutions, with which the author is engaged. The presentation will further outline opportunities for facilitating effective learning between regions with similar but not always identical contexts, such as the Caribbean and Pacific islands.

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Authors contributing to this abstract.

PULWARTY, R.S

Roger S. Pulwarty is the Senior Scientist in the NOAA Physical Sciences Division in Boulder, Colorado. Roger’s research focuses on weather and climate extremes, early warning, and disaster risk management. He has helped design and lead several widely-recognized programs including U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System, and the WMO Climate Services Information System. Roger is a lead author on assessments for the IPCC, UNISDR, UNCCD, the National Academy of Sciences, and the US National Climate Assessment. Roger provides testimonies before the U.S. Congress, and acts as an advisor on climate risk assessment and management to national and international agencies including the Caribbean Economic Community, Red Cross/Red Crescent, and the InterAmerican and World Banks. He has served on White House task forces on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus and on Climate and National Security, and is the U.S. Co-chair for UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Water). Roger's work on integrating research into decision-making has been awarded by NOAA, the Department of Commerce, the Caribbean Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, and featured in several media communications, including the New York Times, National Geographic, and the BBC. Roger is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Indian Sciences and Engineering Society. He is the co-editor of “Hurricanes: Climate and Socioeconomic Impacts” (Springer, re-issued in paperback 2012), and “Drought and Water Crises” (CRC Press, 2017). Roger is Professor-Adjunct at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of the West Indies, Barbados.

Climate Services across the Tropics: Science, applications and information in the Caribbean (and opportunities for collaboration across the Pacific) (#221)

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PULWARTY, R.S

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