#PlanetPartners: Putting cutting-edge climate change information into the hands of decision-makers in China

A new website and supporting handbook has been launched today (Tuesday 23 March) by the Institute of Environmental Analytics (IEA), bringing ready access to climate change information for a wide range of decision-makers in China.

The Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) China is a research collaboration between around 200 scientists in China and the UK, led by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP CAS) and the Met Office.

Since 2014 it has produced more than 340 published research papers and now many of the new climate science and prototype climate services have been made available to industry and government by the IEA, based at the University of Reading, as the final outputs of an 18 month project funded by the UK Met Office.

Utilising the key IEA skills of translating scientific research into actionable intelligence, the project team has worked closely with climate researchers in the UK and China to develop a suite of knowledge products to support future R&D and policymaking. These include:

• a number of interactive data visualisation tools for city planners, infrastructure designers and engineers in the built environment, health services and the agricultural and water sectors.
• a series of ‘climate explainers’ designed for those making strategic decisions in sectors that are directly and indirectly affected by the impacts of our changing climate.
• a new website, www.viewpoint-cssp.org with a searchable catalogue of published papers and a comprehensive guide to climate terminology in Mandarin and English, where resources can be freely downloaded and shared.
• an online compendium of interviews and resources in Mandarin and English plus features on the key climatic themes of CSSP China.
• briefing notes collating a range of information sources relating to pressing climate topics in a digestible format with clear signposts to the underpinning science.
• training resources for a wide range of technical abilities, including step-by-step video guides on how to use the data tools.

The website and handbook have been welcomed by climate experts in China and the UK.

Dame Caroline Wilson DCMG, British Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, said in her foreword in the handbook: “Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, it is remarkable how far we have come in our understanding, yet we are not doing enough to limit dangerous climate change.

“The UK and China are global leaders in science and technology, together we produce knowledge at the forefront of human understanding. With both countries investing record amounts in science and technology and leading by example with pledges to become net zero economies around the middle of the century, the stage is set for the UK and China to address the challenge of climate change head on.”

Professor Lianchun Song, Director-General of the National Climate Centre of the CMA, said: “Over the past seven years, we have carried out in-depth co-operative research and development in the areas of detection and attribution of extreme events, large-scale climate dynamics and climate model development, achieving a lot of results. What is more gratifying is that these results have been widely applied to climate services in China.”

Professor Tianjun Zhou, Director General of IAP, said: “On behalf of the IAP, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the UK and Chinese scientists participating in CSSP China for their productive work, and to the Newton Fund, the Met Office, China Meteorological Administration and the Bureau of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their strong support. We look forward to having more fruitful results from China-UK cooperation in the future.”