WCRP Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean: During the last WCRP-Open Science Conference it has been made clear that the climate research community is facing a complex challenge that includes improving our knowledge on the climate system, the interactions among its components and the limits of predictability. The challenge also involves enhancing our ability to interact with other disciplines, particularly decision makers (including those who elaborate policy) and social scientists in order to translate climate knowledge into actionable information. This challenge exhibits important regional characteristics, including different socio-economic levels of exposition, vulnerability and adaptability to a variable and changing climate. These peculiarities should be clearly identified to effectively accomplish the goal of promoting the research needed to underpin the generation of relevant climate information and skillful climate predictions, thus providing the rationale for the WCRP Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean (WCRP-LAC). The main goal of this Conference is to identify gaps and ways to overcome limitations in the chain of knowledge going from basic to applied climate science and to informing policy and decisions that are particularly relevant for LAC. This will imply building interdisciplinary capacity, fostering the participation of decision and policy makers, climate and social scientists, and key intermediary institutions. Moreover, it is also expected that the WCRP-LAC could contribute to the discussions on the emerging provision of regional Climate Services. Objectives The WCRP-LAC should aid in defining the research agenda needed to contribute tothe provision of effective, problem-oriented and demand-driven climate services. This will necessarily require a balance between (i) research focused in improving climate monitoring and predictions at regional and local scales; (ii) research oriented by the demands of socio-economic sectors sensitive to climate, and (iii) research on the process of informing policy and decision-making in the different socioeconomic sectors. The specific objectives underlying these main research strategies are to:
It is
evident, however, that there is a diverse range of socioeconomic sectors
sensitive to climate in Latin America and the Caribbean. Therefore,
WCRP-LAC
activities will be focused in the following thematic areas: water and
energy, agriculture and ecosystems, human health, coastal zones and
urban environments. In LAC there are national, regional and
international experiences in integrated studies focused on water
resources and agriculture. The WCRP Conference will provide an
opportunity to initiate and/or expand the dialog with stakeholders of
those specific socio-economic sectors in order to plan new relevant
research activities.
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