Climate Services in Asia Pacific: Emerging Trends and Prospects

Abstract

In the keynote session, three senior experts from different international institutes overviewed the critical elements and future challenges of climate services. Fiona Horsfall, chief of the Climate Services Branch of the National Weather Service of the United States, called for partnership formation and the adoption of a collaborative and holistic approach in developing climate services. In this process, communication is critical in driving decision-makers and climate information users to learn the science and adjust their habits toward taking action. Daniela Jacob, director of Climate Service Center Germany, emphasized that in the current era of global warming, climate services are positioned to be the source of key strategic information for many sectors and users to adapt to climate extremes. The key sectors for adaptation are water, food, infrastructure, natural environment, and disaster risk management, and the key factors for developing future climate services are innovation, systematic approaches for data and product quality, and education and communication strategies. Pao-Kuan Wang, director of the Research Center for Environmental Changes of Academia Sinica in Taipei, mentioned from the perspective of climate science that, despite the increasing importance of climate forecast, the uncertainty associated with it is still substantial, as several large-scale processes in the atmosphere, oceans, and cryosphere and the interactions among them are not yet fully understood (Wang et al. 2017). Continuing data collection and fundamental research is necessary in order to improve climate forecast and increase the value of climate services.