Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services)

Teaser

CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services) set to develop a number of advanced climate services building upon the newly developed Copernicus Climate Change Services – seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. A portfolio of user co-designed and...

Summary

CLARA (Climate forecast enabled knowledge services) set to develop a number of advanced climate services building upon the newly developed Copernicus Climate Change Services – seasonal forecasts and sectorial information systems. A portfolio of user co-designed and co-developed climate services are designed to help to improve policy and decision makings. Climate services (CSs) are essential for catalysing economic and societal transformations that not only reduce these risks and/or improve societal resilience, but also unlock Europe’s innovation potential, competitiveness and economic growth.
The main objective of CLARA is to develop a set of leading-edge climate services building upon the Copernicus Climate Change Services – near-term forecasts and sectorial information systems (SIS) – and sustain their marketability and value.
The specific objectives of the project include:
[1] 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) to improve policy and decision making in disaster risk reduction, water resource management, air pollution control, renewable energy and agriculture.
[2] 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 obtain from them in terms of reduced risk, more efficient resource management, and improved resilience to climate variability and change.
[3] Engage service developers, purveyors and end-users in mutually beneficial collaboration and partnerships for service co-design, co-development, co-assessment and co-delivery;
[4] 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

Eighteen months into the project implementation, the CLARA consortium is well on-track to successfully complete the envisaged activities.
• We have compiled a methodological sourcebook and guidance for the development of the CLARA climate services; initiated fruitful collaboration and dialogs, and contributed to Climate KIC and Copernicus Summer Schools and User Fora.
• We have established a Multi-User Forum (MUF) that comprises public bodies and authorities, irrigators’ associations, energy producers, civil protection, insurance companies, and other financial organisations. The MUF plays a crucial role in co-designing the innovative application, and stimulating collaboration among the end-users, purveyors, and services providers. The MUF comprises around 70 members. The MUF is organized in five Task Forces, and comprises representatives from the Copernicus User Fora in Italy, Sweden and Spain. Two MUF workshops were held in Stockholm (March 2018) and Cordoba (November 2018).
• The CLARA-enabled and/or – enhanced climate services build upon the seasonal and decadal forecasts as well as future climate projections of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and simplify their use in five priority areas of the Global Framework for climate services (GFCS): disaster risk management; water resource management; air pollution control; renewable energy supply; and agriculture. For each service we have completed specification of user requirements and description of choices informed, and portrayed users’ agreed technical and technological implementation, conducted pilot applications and drafted initial business and marketing model/plan.
• The economic and/or social value of the CLARA climate services is contingent to users’ benefits from decisions prompted by the knowledge obtained from the services. Building upon the trial application of CLARA services, we have engaged in empirical assessment of the economic values and benefits enabled by CLARA services. We have developed and continuously refined an assessment framework and methodological toolkit.
• We have initiated a Task Force on evaluation of climate services from users’ perspective, published several articles in peer-reviewed journals; co-organised an expert workshop with JPI Climate and Copernicus Climate Change Services; organised special sessions during the ECCA 2017 and other conferences. In December 2018 we have organised a side event to the UNFCCC COP24 conference in Katowice.

Final results

Our primary ambition is to smooth and accelerate deployment of climate forecast-enabled services. To make this happen, we are developing new and enhancing existing operational or pre-operational climate services so as to run on the basis of climate forecasts, while steering the development towards user-specified knowledge demand and demonstrated added value of choices driven by such services. Our services have demonstrated the value of climate predictions/projections, and made the business case for the deployment of the climate services at various scales. CLARA unique feature is the co-production and co-development process during which the purveyors and users interact and experiment in order to appreciate technical feasibility and costs. The Multi-User Forum has created a marketplace conducive for forging new partnerships and collaborations. For example, our services are being tested and deployed beyond the areas initially envisaged (e.g. in South America for assessing the hydropower potential).
CLARA project set out to maximize impact on users of and market with climate services, with emphasis on:
• facilitating rapid deployment and market uptake of climate services by demonstrating their added value in terms of effectiveness, value creation, optimised opportunities and minimised risks,
• increasing the provision of climate services with added value to the end-users,
• fostering market uptake of climate services, and
• offering concrete solutions to overcome barriers hampering deployment of climate services in the specific area of application.
We contribute to the implementation of the post-2015 multilateral agreements on sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate action (adaptation and mitigation). 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 foster incremental and transformational change in various adaptation sectors. We have fostered market uptake by employing insightful market (prospect and barrier) analysis and outreach activities capable of scaling up the diffusion and use of CLARA-enabled climate services. We are working with the National Copernicus User Fora in the participating countries, as a platform for reaching large number of actual and potential users. We employ manifold outreach activities, including partnerships engaging service developers, purveyors and users in mutually beneficial exploration of product development for specific purposes and with well documented added value. We liaise with principal innovation platform, including Climate KIC and European Innovation Partnerships, to leverage our dissemination and outreach activities and contribute to collective efforts to boost European market with climate services at affordable price and using praxis-proven technologies.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.clara-project.eu.