Impacts World 2013

The Impacts World2013 conference was held in Potsdam, Germany in May, 2013.The conference proceedings can be downloaded here.

It was a discussion-based conference designed to tackle five fundamental challenges:

Can we integrate our existing knowledge across sectors?

Climate change will have impacts in a wide range of sectors that belong to both the natural and the socio-economic sphere. The issue transcends the traditional research boundaries and creates multiple cross-disciplinary challenges.

How certain are we?

The utility and credibility of climate impacts research is heavily reliant on the robustness of impact projections. Uncertainty propagates from observational data, climate models and socio-economic scenarios, through to impact and adaptation assessments.

What is still missing?

A comprehensive and systematic gap analysis is needed to identify mechanisms, sectors and regions which are currently under-researched.

How do we bridge the divide between regional and global impact studies?

Global assessments of climate change impacts are important to inform the policy making process at international, regional, and local levels. Therefore, to ensure that research meets the demands of decision-makers and communities for reliable and timely information, details of climate impacts must be provided at the appropriate geographic scale. Bridging the scales between global and regional impact research and models can go in both directions.

Is anybody listening?

Research provides crucial information to global, regional, national and local policy makers and practitioners. Research results must be relevant, intelligible and concise not only for the scientific community, but also to stakeholders and the wider public. Quantitative syntheses as well as powerful narratives are crucial.