A word from the CCKE

FCFA Launches at Vic Falls Conference

Future Climate For Africa formally launched to a public audience at the fifth Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-5) conference in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on 28 October 2015.

The launch consisted of a “talk show” panel discussion between FCFA researchers and coordinators aimed to give a new audience a condensed and stimulating introduction to a very diverse and ambitious programme. FCFA partners were support by an opening address from Dr Arame Tall, representing the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), and a closing word from Clare Shakya, representing DFID. Valuable input from the audience came from the World Bank, CARE International, IDRC and Jomo Kenyatta University. For the full article click here.

The FCFA Panel at CCDA-V, from left to right: Richard Anyah (University of Connecticut, HyCRISTAL), Fred Semazzi (North Carolina State University, HyCRISTAL), Richard Jones (UK Met Office, IMPALA), Chris Jack (CSAG, FRACTAL), Babatunde Abiodun (CSAG, IMAPALA), Japhet Kashaigili (Sokoine University of Agriculture, UMFULA), David Adukpo (University of Cape Coast, AMMA-2050), Jean-Pierre Roux (SouthSouthNorth, CCKE Unit)

FCFA will be delivered by five independent research consortia, with support from a central coordination unit. Each consortium includes partnerships among leading and emerging African, British and other international centres of excellence. Research on physical climate science will be undertaken at both pan-African and regional scales, and a selected number of pilot projects will provide on-the-ground demonstrations of how improved climate information may support particular development decisions.

The UMFULA project (‘river’ in Zulu) will provide new insights and more reliable information about climate processes and extremes in Central and Southern Africa. UMFULA will be working closely with universities and development partners to link the information to development decisions with long-term consequences in the water, agriculture and energy sectors in the Rufiji river basin in Tanzania and at the subnational level in southern Malawi. On 23 September, UMFULA launched its regional research in Central and Southern Africa. For the full article click here.

FRACTAL will improve scientific knowledge of future climate trends in Southern Africa, deepen urban policy-makers’ understanding of how climate change will affect water and energy services, and support them to explore climate-resilient development choices. This initiative will organise ‘City Learning Labs’ in Lusaka, Zambia; Maputo, Mozambique; and Windhoek, Namibia, to explore the vulnerability of urban water and energy services to climate-related events such as flooding, extreme temperatures and sea level rise or storm surges. FRACTAL will also collaborate with two additional self-funded South African cities, Ethekwini and Cape Town. On the 12th August, FRACTAL launched its regional research for Southern Africa. For the full article click here.

AMMA 2050 will improve understanding of how the West African monsoon will be affected by climate change in the coming decades. This project will investigate how physical processes interact to cause ‘high impact weather events’ such as storms, and heat waves that affect lives and livelihoods. Not only will they look at how the total amount of rainfall is likely to change – but also at how rainfall is likely to be distributed throughout the wet season. On the 5 October, AMMA-2050 launched its regional research for West Africa. For the full article click here.

HyCRISTAL is a project to improve projections of climate change and its impacts in East Africa and work with the region’s decision-makers to manage water for a more climate-resilient future. The project will work in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders to apply this knowledge in two different settings: rural communities that rely on agriculture and fishing; and urban populations where water supply and sanitation are under pressure. On 23 September, HyCRISTAL launched its regional research in East Africa with the endorsement of the Prime Minister of Uganda. For the full article click here.

The IMPALA project aims to deliver a step change in global climate model prediction capability for Africa. This project will focus on a single climate model, the Met Office Unified Model, to improve its simulation of African climate through a better understanding and representation of weather and climate processes. This will result in reduced uncertainty in future projections of the African climate and provide valuable information to climate scientists and modellers within Africa and worldwide.

FCFA at COP21

We would like to invite you to the FCFA side event at the Africa Pavilion at COP 21. The event will take place on Tuesday 1 December at Salle 2 from 10-11.30am. The discussion will speak to the question "How could better climate information improve development decision making in Africa?” by sharing the rationale and approaches for FCFA work over the next four years. Panelists will include:

Prof Declan Conway (Grantham Research Institute,
London School of Economics)
Dr Richard Jones (UK MetOffice)
Dr Benjamin Sultan (IDS)
Dr Serge Janicot (IDS)
Prof Ros Cornforth (Walker Institute, Reading University)
Bettina Koelle (Red Cross Red Crescent)
Jean-Pierre Roux (SouthSouthNorth, CDKN)
The discussion will be moderator by Stef Raubenheimer.

We look forward to seeing you there!

No. 2 November 2015

FCFA Launches at Vic Falls Conference

FCFA at COP21