Leading climate scientists from around the world gather this week in Bern, Switzerland to refine their priorities for up-coming research in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, focusing on areas of science where many of the fastest climate system changes emerge, focusing on areas of science where many of the fastest climate system changes emerge or areas where better understanding is essential to improve projections of future climate change.
Two long-standing partners – the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and Working Group I of the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are organizing the meeting 8-10 September, less than one year after the IPCC Working Group I assessment on the Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis.
WCRP has advanced six ‘Grand Challenges’ covering sea level change, water availability, disappearing snow and ice, changing atmospheric circulations, climate extremes, and regional climate.
In Bern approximately 80 scientists, many of them authors of the IPCC Working Group I chapters or leaders of the WCRP grand challenges, will discuss lessons learned from the Working Group 1 assessment , as well as new research since the IPCC report. The meeting will refine the focus and future priorities and directions for climate research.
“With new results about the climate system emerging every day, we need to continually assess where we stand and where we need to go next,” said Prof Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern and Co-Chair of IPCC WGI. “We deeply appreciate support from the Swiss government for this meeting; it represents exactly the next steps needed for climate research,” said Prof. Stocker, who leads the meeting from the IPCC side..
“The climate research community doesn’t sit still,” said Dr David Carlson, Director of the WCRP. “We need to press forward but in the best directions as guided by the Working Group I report.”
WCRP is an international programme jointly sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation, the International Council for Science and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.
The conference is hosted by the International Space Science Institute on the campus of the University of Bern, and is receiving support from WCRP, the IPCC and the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research of the University of Bern.
