A climate scenario viewer for Central America

This new visualisation tool will allow the countries of the region to have regionalised

climate change projections for designing their adaptation plans and policies more effectively

Madrid, July 16.- The EUROCLIMA+ programme, through the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy, with the collaboration of the Spanish Meteorological Agency -AEMET-, the Regional Committee on Water Resources of SICA and the meteorological services of the six countries of the Central American region –Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama-, have launched a new web tool for the visualisation of Regionalised Climate Scenarios.

CLIMATE SCENARIOS are the regionalised projections calculated for different emission scenarios in a given geographical area -country, municipality, region-. Currently, there are many climate models, most of which are designed for a global scale - the latest IPCC report contains more than 40 global models-.

However, a specific adaptation action for a given territory needs to be able to anticipate with greater definition the impacts that the different ecosystems and sectors of activity in that particular place might experience with the evolution of the different climate variables. This requires a downscaling of models, moving from the global scenarios available to the specific realities of countries, regions and/or municipalities, thus allowing for the design of more efficient adaptation actions.

As indicated by Ernesto Rodríguez (Head of the Climate Assessment and Modelling Area of AEMET and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee Centre): What happens with global models? Well, they have a spatial resolution of 100 or 200 km and for any study of adaptation of any activity this is clearly insufficient. We need information with a higher resolution, or even information at a specific level. If I need to build a type of infrastructure, I usually want it for a specific location.

To this end, the EUROCLIMA+ programme is working on accompanying the countries of the region in the development of REGIONALISED CLIMATE SCENARIOS, i.e. projections with an appropriate spatial and temporal resolution that allow specific impact and vulnerability studies to be drawn up and the needs for adaptation to climate change to be assessed in various socio-economic sectors - such as production, civil defence or infrastructure - and ecological systems.

With this objective, and within the framework of this action and the EUROCLIMA+ programme, a Regionalised Climate Scenario Viewer for Central America has been developed, a web tool that will allow interactive consultation by different user groups. "Everything that has to do with climate change projections is affected by uncertainties (...) Exploring that uncertainty is an essential element of the viewer. We can explore the uncertainties and see specific areas, different times of the year, and add in all the information we have. We have information from many sources and being able to aggregate all that information helps a lot in interpreting the evolution of the climate.

The viewer for Central America has been based on Spain's previous experience in developing the scenario viewer for Spain’s Platform on Adaptation to Climate Change, AdapteCCa, and it will be housed in CentroClima, a space for communication and liaison between climate information generators and users, promoted by the Regional Committee on Water Resources of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

A presentation of this tool will take place on 23 July, within the framework of the webinar Regionalised climate scenarios: Latin American experiences in the use of tools to interpret the information and facilitate the design of adaptation policies and measures. 

About EUROCLIMA+  

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the German Society for International Cooperation, Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), and UN Environment.

Contacts

Contact EUROCLIMA+ / FIIAPP Daniel Fernández: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Euroclima is the European Union's flagship programme on environmental sustainability and climate change with Latin America. It aims to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects in Latin America by promoting climate change mitigation and adaptation through resilience and investment. 
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