Climate forecast enabled knowledge services

Project Information

CLARA

Grant agreement ID: 730482

DOI

10.3030/730482

Project closed

EC signature date 5 May 2017

Start date 1 June 2017

End date 30 September 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 3 773 702,53

EU contribution

€ 3 459 075,00

Coordinated by

FONDAZIONE CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEOSUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services)

Reporting period: 2018-12-01 to 2020-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The EU Green Deal laid out a new development blueprint that puts the EU on the path of climate neutrality and resilience by 2050. The Green Deal includes, among others, the 2021 EU Climate Adaptation Strategy aiming at closing the knowledge and innovation gaps, and the Horizon Europe Mission “Adaptation to Climate Change and Societal Transformation, aiming to prepare Europe for climate disruptions with improved access to state-of-the-art climate risk assessment. Sound, reliable and economically viable climate services are vital for both initiatives. Responding to the challenges identified in the European Research and Innovation Roadmap for Climate Services, the CLARA H2020 project developed a portfolio of advanced climate services that make use of the Copernicus Climate Change Service platform for seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. These services set out to better manage natural resources, improve disaster risk management, and to build better resilience.

CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services) is a Horizon 2020 innovation action set to develop a set of advanced climate services, while building upon the Copernicus Climate Change Services – seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. The project set out to be part of Europe’s efforts to use climate services to better manage natural resources, improve disaster risk management, and to build better resilience. The CLARA project aimed to use seasonal and decadal forecasts and climate projections to demonstrate the benefits and economic value of climate services. The project set out to:

• Facilitate development of new and enhancement of existing climate services by drawing upon the recent seasonal to decadal projections and projections developed under the Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S).
• Analyse and demonstrate the economic and social value unleashed by climate forecast enabled climate services and corroborate the ensuing direct and indirect benefits various end users and customers.
• Engage service developers, purveyors and end-users in mutually beneficial collaboration and partnerships for service co-design, co-development, co-assessment and co-delivery.
• Contribute to advancing the European innovation, competitiveness and market performance for climate services, by designing and implementing innovative exploitation, business and market-oriented activities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

CLARA developed a portfolio of advanced climate services that make use of the Copernicus Climate Change Service platform for seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. The CLARA team developed these climate services to improve policymaking in five climate adaptation areas: disaster risk reduction, water resource management, agriculture and food security, renewable energy and public health.

• Economic assessment of flood risk, FLOODMAGE
• Reservoir Operation Assessment Tool. ROAT
• Water supply assessment tool, AQUA
• Parma river basin Water Assessment, PWA
• Water Requirements for Irrigation, WRI
• Climate smart irrigation tool, IRRICLIME
• Smart Climate Hydropower, SCHT
• Small Hydropower Management Tool, SHYMAT
• Solar energy Assessment and Planning tool, SEAP
• Hydro GWh Prediction, HYDRO GWH
• Air pollution and public health, AIRCLOUD
• Air Quality in future Climate, AQCLI
• Post-processed Decadal Climate Predictions, PPDP
• The tailored tool for climate analysis, CLIME

User involvement ensures that scientific knowledge is accessible and actionable, and products are relevant for the decision-making problem. A co-generation approach allows for incorporating users’ needs, facilitates continuous service improvements, reduces the risk of service failure and eventually results in a more positive users’ attitude towards the service. However, engaging and maintaining collaboration among researchers, developers and users might prove to be difficult. A Multi-User Forum (MUF) was established as a vehicle for broad consultation, dialog, external review, and collaboration with a range of users’ organisations and networks with a shared interest in climate (seasonal and decadal) forecast-enabled services. The MUF was established at an early stage of the project's implementation and the recruitment based on an open call for expression of interests.
For each service we analyse the economic and wider social value generated in terms of reduced risks, increased efficiencies and resilience. Local user panels engage additional 30-40 users who participate in co-designing and co-evaluation of the services. Carefully designed value proposition was critically important for demonstrating business viability. Extended marketing intelligence and coaching services provided within the project made it possible to formulate appropriate revenue and financial models and hence ensure viability of the service provision. Furthermore, we analysed the barriers to the uptake and use of climate service, creating good conditions for marketability of CLARA and other climate services.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

CLARA services have been designed so as to improve the way risks posed by climate variability and change are managed in Europe. In doing so we fostered incremental and transformational change in various adaptation sectors. We have initiated and coordinated a cross-project collaboration platform for nine H2020 projects on climate services. The specific result of this cooperation is the side event organised within the context of the UNFCCC Conference of parties (COP) 24 in Katowice (December 2018) or jointly organised sessions at various European Conferences (ECCA 2019 and Using ECMWF Forecasts conference in 2020). We have cooperated with number of other organisations, projects and platforms such as ECMWF, UNISDR, Climate KIC, Climateurope, and JPI Climate. We have contributed to major European reports (EEA, DRMKC). CLARA has also contributed to identifying outstanding research gaps and priorities for climate modelling and climate services for the Horizon Europe, under the auspices of the Climateurope.

Beyond the portfolio of operational climate services with clear value proposition and marketing strategy, we contributed to the implementation of the post-2015 multilateral agreements on sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate action. We have contributed to the seminal reports of the European Environmental Agency (EEA) on policy coherence across adaptation and disaster risk reduction (see also here) and the Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation of adaptation progress with focus on the role of climate services. We have co-hosted a workshop together with JPI Climate/ERA4CS and the Copernicus Climate Change Service on how the DRR community could be best served by new and emerging CS. The workshop identified challenges and opportunities for delivery of effective operational disaster risk management and communication informed by an understanding of future climate risks. Emphasis on climate services has been elaborated in the revised Peer Review Assessment Framework of disaster risk management capabilities under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism. We have produced thematic reports on adaptation to climate change in agricultural sector in North-eastern Italy and the role of climate services and Climate Risk Report in Italy.

Multi-User Forum workshop in Cordoba (NOV 2018), copyrights Jaroslav Mysiak

Co-development cycle

Services development

CLARA Climate Services

IRRICLIME screenshot, copyrights GECOSISTEMA SRL (Stefano Bagli)