HIGHLIGHTS FROM TUESDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER

On Tuesday morning, two plenary sessions were held on the economic and social benefits of climate information and on advancing climate prediction science. In the afternoon there were six parallel working groups on: climate and human health; climate and sustainable energy; seasonal-to-interannual climate variability; climate and water; climate, transportation and tourism; and climate observations. Two forum sessions were also held on gender and climate and climate and communities, as well as two sessions on implementing climate services, titled "from observations to predictions" and "research engagement". The day ended with a roundtable on climate adaptation and the Copenhagen process.

During a plenary session on the economic and social benefits of climate information, Gordon McBean, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, noted that future work on climate information should be interdisciplinary. Don Gunasekera, CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science, noted that climate information is used in decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Holger Meinke, Wageningen University, said adaptation science is the knowledge component behind enabling technologies for adaptation. Matthias Ruth, University of Maryland, highlighted climate change as a threat magnifier. Mohammed Sadeck Boulahya, ClimDevAfrica, questioned how information could be communicated to final users, and how stakeholders could be effectively mobilized. Akimasa Sumi, University of Tokyo, stressed the importance of time scales in climate information. Vladimir Tsirkunov, World Bank, emphasized that those most affected by adverse climate events are often not able to receive climate information.

During a plenary session on advancing climate prediction science, John Mitchell, UK Met Office, highlighted the challenge of combining the science of long-term forecasting based on anthropogenic forcing with interannual predictions. Tim Palmer, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, noted that seasonal forecasting can act as an important tool for adaptation. Mojib Latif, IFM-Geomar, underscored challenges with climate models. Jerry Meehl, National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA, said climate services are dictated by societal needs. Arun Kumar, National Center for Environmental Prediction, USA, elaborated on the current status, limitations and expected advances for climate predictions. Ghassem Asrar, World Climate Research Programme, highlighted the need for shorter transition times between knowledge development and use.

The conference hall was filled to capacity during the morning plenary sessions.