Researchers in the CORDEX-Africa project have developed an initiative to co-develop knowledge on climate change impacts in Africa. Co-ordinated at the University of Cape Town with support from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and the Climate Service Centre in Germany, they plan to develop a climate atlas showing the regional effects of various climate scenarios as a support for important functions in society.
The atlas would present a systematic regional analysis on the effects of 1.5, 2 and 4 degrees of global warming based on local needs in order to provide support for the many communities that do not currently have any detailed information about climate developments. A plan for the atlas was presented at COP 22 in Marrakech in early November and project launch could be as early as 2017, if funding can be secured.
The work on regional climate change has been conducted within the framework of the international CORDEX collaboration, which is intended to develop detailed regional climate information about all the world’s land areas. CORDEX (Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment) is an initiative under the World Climate Research Program, WCRP, and is coordinated by the International Project Office for CORDEX at SMHI. For more information see the SMHI News item.