Climate services explained – benefits, challenges, and solutions
Speaker(s)
Summary
This webinar brings together three distinguished experts to discuss various aspects of climate services and resilience. Daniela Jacob, Director of Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), will draw from her extensive experience leading a climate service center and her latest publication. She will emphasize the importance of co-production in climate services, highlighting the iterative engagement between providers and users to enhance the services' usefulness and effectiveness. Challenges such as the need for sustained multidirectional approaches and the empowerment of societal actors, alongside enablers like timely, reliable products and transdisciplinary approaches will also be discussed. The second speaker is Christopher Hewitt, Director of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climate Services Division. He will discuss climate services at the global level, and how they are being developed and implemented regionally and nationally, across sectors like agriculture, water, health, disaster risk reduction, and energy. Highlights will include the WMO activities in supporting high-quality climate services that facilitate data-driven policymaking and climate risk management. Our final speaker is Kehinde O. Ogunjobi, Scientific Director of the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) Competence Centre Burkina Faso. The CICLES project will be the focus as this initiative aims to enhance resilience and sustainable socio-economic development in West Africa through customized climate services.
Learning objectives
Gain background knowledge on what is a climate service based on varying organizational expertise and perspectives
Explore climate services delivery best practices
Identify challenges and enablers of climate services co-production
A webinar by the International Network of Boundary Organizations on Adaptation (INBOA) and the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS).
Speakers
Prof. Daniela Jacob
Director of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS)
Prof. Daniela Jacob has been the Director of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), an institution of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, since 2015. She is a visiting professor at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and was a lead author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (WG 2) and the coordinating lead author of the IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Daniela chairs the Climate Council of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the German Committee for Sustainability Research in Future Earth (DKN). She is also a member of the European Commission's Mission Board for "Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation."
Daniela is a distinguished member of The Earth League and served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Destination Earth Initiative until 2024. She was an ECMWF Fellow from 2021 to 2023 and has been a Fellow of the International Science Council (ISC) since 2023. Her research spans regional climate modelling, climate services, adaptation to climate change, climate-resilient development, and sustainability. Daniela is dedicated to providing scientific support for societal transformation towards a sustainable and climate-resilient 1.5°C lifestyle. Additionally, she was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal "Climate Services," a scientific journal she co-founded with Elsevier, until 2024.
Prof. Christopher Hewitt
Director, Climate Services Division, World Meteorological Organization
Prof. Chris Hewitt joined the WMO in 2022 as the Director of the Climate Services Division, collaborating with organizations worldwide to build resilience to climate variability and change. Prior to this, he was Head of International Climate Services at the UK Met Office and a Professor of Climate Science at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. Chris has played a pivotal role in evolving the climate services landscape, ensuring the application of scientific advancements for societal benefit and aligning scientific developments with societal needs. He has been instrumental in developing the UN’s Global Framework for Climate Services, led several European climate service projects, and co-chaired three WMO Expert Teams. Chris began his career as a climate researcher and model developer after earning his MSc and PhD in meteorology from the University of Reading.
Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi
Deputy/Director of Research of the WASCAL Competence centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi has been the Director of Research at the WASCAL Competence Centre since 2020, transforming it into a hub for cutting-edge research and training in climate science and land use adaptation. Under his leadership, the centre has fostered collaborations with universities, research institutions, and governmental bodies, creating a robust network for knowledge exchange and capacity building. Before joining WASCAL, Kehinde was a distinguished academic and research leader in climate and environmental sciences. He served as Head of the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Nigeria and directed the WASCAL Graduate Study Programme on West African Climate Systems at FUTA. He has been a Fellow of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
His research interests span climate modeling and impact assessment, renewable energy and sustainable resource management, adaptation strategies for climate change, and policy development for environmental sustainability. His extensive experience in interdisciplinary research integrates environmental science, policy, and socio-economic aspects to address pressing issues related to climate change and land use in West Africa.
