Climate Change Research Initiatives in EU Member States

1. Climate Change Research Initiatives in EU Member States Dr. Frank McGovern, Ireland (EU Presidency) Side event: Research in response to the IPCC TAR 21 June, 2004, Bonn SB20

2. Research capacity in EU:Global and European level • Large research capacity in Europe • Several centres of global importance in climate research e.g. Hadley Centre, UK; Max Planck, Germany; IIASA, Austria; CNRS, Meteo France, France; KNMI, Netherlands; Rossby Centre, Sweden; and others… • Several powerful global climate change models • At European level, very significant support for CC research from DG Research, particularly under Global Change and Ecosystems programme within the 6th Framework Programme.

3. Research capacity in EU: Member State level • Extensive, diverse, adapted to national and regional needs and interests • Significant socio-economic research on adaptation and mitigation; development of indicators of climate sensitivity; increasing capacity for regional modelling of agricultural, ecosystem, social, economic impacts of CC • Several important regional models have been developed – extensive work on downscaling (e.g. Hungary, Ireland…) • Co-operation with non-EU countries including developing countries (Italy and China, Finland and a number of DCs, Netherlands and Bhutan…)

4. Responding to the Gaps • Main issues of WG2 on Adaptation Information Needs • Vulnerability, adaptive capacity, long-term monitoring systems, data availability and access, socio-economic factors influence exposures of different communities, modelling, limits to adaptation…

5. Responding to the Gaps • Main issues of WG3 on Mitigation - Gaps in Knowledge • Regional and sector specific potential and costs of mitigation options as well as barriers • Identification of opportunities in area of social innovation leading to decreased GHG emissions • Capacity building: Research, integrated assessment, modelling…etc • Synergies between mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development • Equity issues

6. How are EU countries responding to these gaps? • Adaptation • Regional Modelling: UK, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and others • Local capacity development: Combination of Local/Regional/National decision levels in the French National Heat Wave Plan • Extreme events: e.g. Netherlands, UK • Socio-economic factors: e.g. Italy, Germany, Finland • Long-term monitoring: e.g. Sweden, Italy • Vulnerability and risk assessment: e.g Italy, UK • More…

7. How are EU countries responding to these gaps? • Mitigation • Understanding technology diffusion: Finland (involvement of National Technology Agency) • Vulnerability modelling: Potsdam • Scenario analysis: IIASA • Developing research capacity esp. in developing countries: many co-operations of this type…

8. Climate change research: taking place in many forms • Difficult to characterise CC research in EU! • CC research in EU countries is taking place in many forms, • Some countries have extensive research on forestry management, alternative energy sources, … all are relevant to CC, but are not explicitly and directly being done for that reason.

9. Retaining independence of EU research • Caution against imposing research priorities on countries • Independence of research at country level should be protected • WG2 and WG3’s moves towards prioritising climate change research are well-intentioned, but should not be allowed to compromise the valuable independence and diversity of research going on in EU countries.

10. Thank you for your attention!