Climate Concepts for Development

The IRI and the US Agency for International Development’s Global Climate Change Office have jointly launched a webinar series on climate resilient development. The webinar topics address some of the IRI’s and USAID’s most frequently encountered questions from development professionals.

In each of the following webinars, the scientists introduce themselves, the concepts behind their work, and demonstrate how climate services can inform development decision-making for improved outcomes. The final segment of the webinar summarizes the main concepts presented and offers tips on how to deploy these concepts in climate-resilient decision making and planning. Please start with Walter Baethgen’s introductory webinar.

We will ask you once to provide information about yourself and hope that you will do so, in order for us to better understand our audience.  We also encourage you to provide feedback for each of the webinars, and to ask questions.

The webinars were produced by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) for review by the United States Agency for International Development and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID. 

 Walter Baethgen Climate Change, Climate Risks and Development Programs In this presentation Walter Baethgen introduces the three webinars of the series “Climate Resilient Development”. He discusses some of the challenges that practitioners face when trying to embed climate information into their day-to-day work. The presentation also discusses the need for creating and/or strengthening “knowledge chains and networks” to effectively inform decisions and policy.
Tufa Dinku,
Erica Allis
Combined Use of Station Measurements and Satellite Proxies for Improved Climate Services In this presentation Tufa Dinku describes the main issues around availability and access of observed climate data, proposes a solution, and then presents examples of how this solution has been implemented in Africa.
Paula Gonzalez El Niño and its Regional Climate Impacts: from prediction to monitoring In this presentation Paula Gonzalez describes the main characteristics of El Niño and its regional climate impacts.Esta presentación Paula González describe las principales características de El Niño y sus impactos climáticos regionales.
Alessandra Giannini The Uncertainty Behind the IPCC Models In this presentation Alessandra Giannini will explore terms and concepts used in the context of the IPCC to describe certainty and uncertainty in model projections of future change. The models referred to here as “IPCC models” are global climate models, also known as global coupled ocean-atmosphere models; as opposed to the regional climate models used in dynamical downscaling. More complex models which include the cycling of various chemical species or dynamic vegetation are referred to as “Earth System models”. Global climate models, and downscaling will be topics for other presentations.
Andrew Robertson What are General Circulation Models: Q&A on Climate Models In this presentation Andrew Robertson explains general circulation models and how they are used to make climate forecasts and climate projections
Erica Allis Wrapup: El Niño and its Regional Climate Impacts: from monitoring to prediction In this webinar Erica Allis presents a summary of the main characteristics of El Niño and then discusses some specific regional impacts.En este webinar Erica Allis presenta un resumen de las principales características de El Niño y luego discute algunos ejemplos regionales específicos.

The IRI would like to thank Stratus Consulting for their review of the presentations

USAID_logo_2
This webinar series on weather and climate information is sponsored by the US Agency for International Development Global Climate Change Office.