Conference vision - Background

Provision of climate information for decision making, especially at the regional and local levels, require a better understanding of the response of regional and local climate systems to global climate, and in turn their influence on the global system. Global observations are key to understanding this two-way feedback for past and present climate conditions. Earth/climate system models are the primary tools to project/predict future changes. Based on current climate model limitations, advanced downscaling methods are required to translate coarse global scale information into fine regional and local grids. This is necessary to obtain suitable information required for assessing impacts and vulnerability of natural and human systems to such changes, and to develop ultimately the science-based information required for climate adaptation, mitigation and risk management.

The World Climate Research Program (WCRP) is leading a major worldwide effort, the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) to address these issues, in conjunction with the corresponding CMIP5 global scale effort aiming at supporting climate assessments such as the IPCC.

The International Conference on Regional Climate - CORDEX 2013, 4-7 Nov, Brussels, Belgium, represents an exclusive opportunity for world-wide scientists to interact with the CORDEX research communities from all continents to advance our understanding and prediction of regional climate variability and changes. The conference aims to entrain as many aspiring early career scientists and students as possible from across the world, including developing and less-developed nations and regions in order to facilitate growth of the diverse future workforce needed to meet the increasingly complex scientific challenges of the sustainable development.