UK-Russia Climate Change Collaboration: Project Update

Sarah Winne12 February 2008

Agenda

1. Introductions (All)

2. Project Background (Alan Holmes)

3. Project Update (Sarah Winne)

4. Upcoming Activities (Sarah Winne): Completion of the Scoping

Study, Completion of Task 3, Project Workshop in May

5. Discussion (All)

6. Any other business

7. Close

Project Objectives

The overall goal of this project is to:

• Improve the UK and Russia’s understanding of climate change science and impacts;

• Raise the profile of climate science through the project’s outputs and awareness-raising activities;

• Create a new British-Russian network of scientists who can draw upon each other’s expertise to improve the body of research on climate change science.

Key Tasks

Phase 1: Project Inception

Task 1: Project Vision Meeting (September 2007)

Task 2: Finalise work plan

Phase 2: Review existing research

Task 3: Review existing research on climate change science and impacts in Russia

Task 4: Links between sound science and sound policy-making

Phase 3: Awareness-raising activities

Task 5: Workshops, project website, leaflets

Task 6: Publication of project results

Phase 4: Research Programme

Task 7: Scoping Study

Task 8: Research programme review and approval

Phase 5: Research Programme

Key tasks to follow

Phase 6: Project Co-ordination and Review

Task 3: Review existing research

Timescale: December 07 – April 08

Output: A report summarising current existing scientific research on climate change science and impacts in the UK and Russia

Update:• CCRM are currently reviewing the existing research on climate

change impacts, specifically focussing on the areas of relevance to the research programme.

• Contributions from Roshydromet and the NCSF will provide additional information on work already done in Russia on climate change impacts

Task 4: Links between science & policy

Timescale: January 08 – August 08

Output: A report examining how sound science and sound policy-making are linked. A presentation based on this task can be given at the project workshop in May.

Update: AEA have developed a work plan for this task and will begin work

soon on the main task activities, which include: • A literature review of available information on science and policy-

making in the UK and Russia;• An investigation of historical examples (case studies) to understand

the way that science and policy are linked in practice;• Interviews with practitioners in policy-making and scientific research

to supplement the literature review.

Task 5: Awareness-raising activities

Ongoing activities to raise the awareness of this project include:

1. Development of a Project Website

Date: February 2008

2. Publicity leaflet based on the Task 3 report

Date: May 2008

3. Project workshop in Moscow

Date: May 2008

Project Website: www.UK-Russia-CCProject.info

Task 7: Scoping study

Timescale: November 07 – February 08

Output: A detailed work plan which will be reviewed by the steering committee in March 08.

Update: Work is progressing on the scoping study to develop a clear work plan for the full research programme. The scoping study will review possible areas of research in more detail to assess which topics best address the project’s objectives.

UK-Russia Climate Change Collaboration: Upcoming Activities

Upcoming Activities: Completion of the scoping study

1. Project name

2. Russian lead: name and contact details

3. UK lead: name and contact details

4. Policy relevance

5. Brief description of the work

Including summaries for each of the four research questions: Q1: What is currently happening in this area? Q2: What is expected to happen? Q3: What are the consequences, both in terms of physical impacts and socio-economic impacts? Q4: What are the responses? What can the government do about it?

6. Contributing organisations and anticipated effort in man-months

7. Expected impacts of project

8. Comments/Anticipated Risks

Upcoming Activities: Development of research programme workplan

Possible Topics

•Russian soil carbon balance under climate change;

•Climatic changes in Arctic and Antarctic, adaptation measures;

•National policy and measures in the area of climate change;

•Identifying maximum permissible levels of climate change;

•Changes in precipitation patterns in Russia;

•Climate change impacts in Russian climatic regions;

•Extreme weather events and their impact on energy infrastructure.

What is currently happening with regard to each topic?

What are the expected impacts in the future?

What are the consequences of these impacts in terms of both

physical and socio-economic impacts?

What can be done about it?

Upcoming Activities: Task 3 and Task 4

• Work on Task 3 (review of existing work on climate change science & impacts) will be completed by April 08. The deliverable for this task will be a report, but a presentation could also be given at the upcoming workshop in May.

• Work on Task 4 (Linking science & policy-making) will continue and is due to be completed by August 08. A final report will be the deliverable for this task as well. We anticipate that the project workshop in May will be a good opportunity to present the interim results of the task and also conduct interviews with stakeholders in Moscow.

Upcoming Activities: Project Workshop in Moscow

• A project workshop is to be held in Moscow in May 08 and will provide a good opportunity to raise awareness of the project and provide stakeholders with an overview of some of the preliminary project results.

• The target audience in Russia will be both scientific institutions and policy-making officials within relevant Ministries.

• Workshop attendees will also include scientists from the Hadley Centre and CCRM.