Improving Access to Mapping, Modelling and Scenario-Building Technology in Climate-Vulnerable Regions: Learning from ClimSAT

"Some of the participating Southern regions were amongst the [economically] poorest and most climate-vulnerable areas on the planet - they stand to face the worse consequences of climate change, but are the most ill-equipped to manage. ClimSAT offered an ICT [information and communication technology]-based platform to remove these significant barriers."

This case study from the University of Manchester United Kingdom (UK)'s "Climate Change, Innovation and ICTs" research project, funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and managed by the University's Centre for Development Informatics (CDI), sought to describe lessons learned from the experiences of ClimSAT. "In 2008 a partnership between the regional government of Brittany and UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], established a climate science and technology hub in Brest, France: ClimSAT....The aim was to enable governments and communities to monitor and model the effects of climate change, and to base climate change and development strategies on accurate, location-specific information....ClimSAT in its original form ceased operation in mid-2011 but was integrated into a wider UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme] programme, the Territorial Approach to Global Change, Scientific Services and Knowledge (TASK)."

ClimSAT gathered scientific and socio economic and 'perception' data from local sources in participating regions. Drivers of the ClimSat project included providing assessment tools, allowing greater access through ICT to information that can improve resilience in the face of climate change. "The ClimSAT hub provided participating regions access to, processing and storage of data and expertise which could greatly enhance their ability to plan for development and adaptation with climate change in mind....Moreover, training local stakeholders in participating developing countries aimed to ensure not only knowledge transfer but also growth in the pool of international actors with knowledge of climate modelling and of utilising impact assessment tools. This, in turn, contributed to the future development of next-generation techniques - promoting collaboration which flows both ways, not just from North to South."

The evaluation section of the study notes that only 6 of 50 projects were implemented. Of those 6, there is evidence of community and partner involvement and evidence that the information derived has been used in risk management. "For example, in the development of Uruguay’s Metropolitan Area Integrated Territorial Climate Plan, specific information from ClimSAT on watershed and coastal erosion management, agriculture and food security was used." Financial shortfall, limiting the programme's scale, was caused by the financial crisis of 2008 and by the perception of Northern partners, potential financial partners in this North-South partnership, that the project belonged to Brittany. "Northern partners have in some cases not actually been as engaged as intended." According to the study, the link between climate change mitigation and adaptation was not made in any of the projects. This may have been, in part, due to a failure to agree on an international climate response at the Copenhagen COP15 summit in 2009.

Recommendations include the following:

• Focus on data demand as much as on data supply, and on data use as much as on data production by asking "What climate data is needed?"
• Make the link between mitigation and adaptation.
• Recognise the value of neutral non-profit organisations.
• Better promote ClimSAT findings.
• Use ClimSAT as a model for wider ICT-based climate change responses. "ICT could potentially offer real-time monitoring of impacts to allow for more resilience, to prevent the worst consequences of climate change, or at least to plan better for them."