The online workshop organized by CORDEX and MAIRS-FE on 9-10 November 2020 aimed to seek better collaboration between the organizers and also other relevant actors. During these two days potential partners discussed ideas and created a strong basis for the future cooperation.

Background

At the fourth International Conference on Regional Climate –CORDEX in Beijing in October 2019 a very promising cooperation between CORDEX and many Asian organizations/universities was initiated, including a side meeting co-organized by CORDEX and MAIRS-FE. This side event resulted in an agreement to collaborate on information exchange across science disciplines, to engage in transferring regional climate research results to policy and to jointly support that the academic community engages more effectively with policy-makers, decision-makers in the public and private sectors through the co-design, co-production and co-deliver principles.

Finding new forms for cooperation

The first day also included that the participants gave their feedback and shared their ideas on these issues, thereby laying a good ground for the next day’s discussions.

On the second day Linda Stevenson from APN and Ailikun from ANSO presented their organizations and their current focus, where climate change, extreme events and associated risks, water security, monsoons and capacity building are some of the important aspects. They both expressed their support for this initiative and acknowledged that it fits well within their respective focus areas.

The meeting proceeded with the director of MAIRS-FE, Tong Zhu and the CORDEX Science Advisory Team member, Fredolin Tangang, who presented the ideas for future collaboration, giving examples of common fields of interest such as air pollution and health risks, heatwaves/droughts and the implications for water resources and wildfires.

With the scene set by these presentations, the around 40 participants were divided into two groups. One group discussed water resources and more specifically; extreme precipitation, wildfire and drought. The other group discussed climate extremes/risks with focus on; climate change impact of air pollution and air quality, climate change related to health risks, risk management, emergency alerting and response.

Both groups agreed that capacity building and involving Early Career Researchers are essential for the cooperation and development. To work towards an end-to-end perspective, here equal to involving stakeholders/users from the beginning and addressing both assessment and applications, is a common goal.

Moving forward – next steps

This workshop created a strong basis for future cooperation. The next stage is to further define specific steps for this group in collaboration with relevant additional partners. If your organization/institute is interested in participating in this collaboration please contact one of the workshop organizers;

International Project Office for CORDEX: ipoc@cordex.org

MAIRS-FE, Wei Wan: wei.wan@pku.edu.cn

Fredolin Tangang: tangang@ukm.edu.my

Shuyu Wang: wsy@nju.edu.cn