Project News
Science Policy Assessment and Research on Climate (SPARC)
In May 2006, Roger Pielke, Jr. and Peter Peter Höppe of the Geo Risks Research Department of Munich Re organized a workshop in Germany, sponsored by Munich Re, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, and the GKSS Research Center, to bring together a diverse group of international experts in the fields of climatology and disaster research. Thirty-two participants from 13 countries attended the two day workshop. They were selected for their high level of competence as well as their representation of a wide range of different attitudes toward the subject (although all agree that anthropogenic climate change is a concern). “White papers” from 25 participants were submitted in advance and formed the basis of the discussions. The workshop was organized in 4 sessions:
- Trends in extreme weather events
- Trends in damages
- Data issues – extreme weather events and damages
- Syntheses discussion
The focus of the workshop was on two questions:
In the syntheses session the discussion was focused on finding consensus positions among the participants on statements about the attribution of disaster losses and the policy implications. The 20 consensus statements can be found in the workshop executive summary. Specific views of individual participants can be found in their white papers, which each was given the opportunity to revise following the workshop.
SPARC Presentations
- Lisa Dilling, Communicating about climate change, NOAA Research Outreach Workshop, June 13.
- Lisa Dilling, Implications of mismatched supply and demand for climate science, Gordon Research Conference on Science and Technology Policy, August 13-18.
- Roger Pielke, Jr., Decision making in a world of uncertainty, Gordon Research Conference on Science and Technology Policy, August 17.
