by Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke Aarhus
What does Climate Change mean for my hometown?
The climate crisis already is impacting human civilisation across the world and the impacts will only grow in the future as the climate continues to warm. However, every country, city, town and individual will experience these effects differently, depending on their geographical location, their sensitivity to these changes and ability to adapt.
Localised and relevant information is therefore critical for adapting to and coping with to the changes that are coming. In this talk I will describe how climate data can be converted to climate information for use in climate adaptation planning, using Klimaatlas, the Danish National Climate Atlas, and the city of Aarhus, as examples.
Future climate change will bring a warmer and wetter climate to Denmark and Aarhus, with challenges from extreme weather events and particularly from sea level rise. This information is integrated in climate action plans at the municipal level, and ultimately informs concrete action that makes our society more robust to the challenges that lie ahead.
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Dr. Mark R. Payne is a climate researcher and the scientific leader of Klimaatlas, the Danish National Climate Atlas, based at the National Center for Climate Research at the Danish Meterological Institute (DMI). Originally from New Zealand, he has a background and PhD in Chemical Engineering, and has worked as a researcher on climate effects on life in the ocean for much of the last two decades. He is the author of more than 50 scientific articles, and has contributed to the IPCC reports. In his current role he is responsible for building a bridge between the society’s needs for climate information on the one hand, and the climate data generated by climate science on the other. Klimaatlas provides such information all the way down to the local level, and currently forms the scientific basis for climate adaptation activities in all 98 local authorities in Denmark.