Anna A. Sörensson and Carla Gulizia
DCAO/FCEN/UBA, CIMA / UBA-CONICET, IFAECI / UBA-CONICET-CNRS-IRD, Buenos Aires Argentina
Overview
Professor Detlef Stammer, Chair of the World Climate Research Programme Joint Scientific Committee (WCRP JSC), visited Argentina on 21-23 August 2024.
A first objective of the visit was to interact with the Argentinean climate researchers, stakeholders and decision makers and get an overview of the interactions amongst these three groups. This would showcase one example of how the relation between science and society works in the global south, getting glimpses of different realities, including potentialities, challenges and needs. This could be useful to the WRCP when evaluating how to reduce the existing gap between the global north and south.
A second objective was to inform and promote WCRP to researchers, stakeholders and government agencies, and in particular to define priorities that are common to WCRP and to national climate science and local stakeholders and government agencies.
This Summary Report documents the actors visited and the activities carried out ordered by date.
Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, 21st of August
1. Meeting with authorities
In the morning of the 21st, Professor Detlef Stammer was welcomed by the Secretary of Scientific and technological research of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences (FCEN/University of Buenos Aires), Patricio Santagapita, as well as by the director of the French-Argentine Institute of Climate and its Impacts (IFAECI) and the Research Center of the Sea and the Atmosphere (CIMA), Pedro Flombaum, and the director of the department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (DCAO), Claudio Menéndez. Pedro Flombaum informed about the difficult time science and education is going through. Just the day before, 20th of August, the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion, the main national financier of scientific projects, covering basic costs, communicated that there are no funds to cover for already accepted projects and that there will not be a call for projects this year. Professor Stammer gave a short overview over WCRP and potential interactions between the FCEN and the WCRP Academy were discussed.
2. Event “International priorities in Climate Change Science”
This event, which was initially proposed as an in-person event at the FCEN, was directed to students, teachers and researchers as well as to personnel at national meteorological and hydrological institutes. Due to the strike of the university staff (officially announced on August 19th) against the extreme reduction of the budget of the Argentinean Public Universities, this event was held online. Professor Detlef Stammer gave an overview of the global climate crisis and the WCRP, while three argentinean researchers gave shorter talks around burning issues: professor Inés Camilloni on Solar Radiation Management, doctor Mariano Masiokas on the current status and the future of the Argentinean Glaciers and professor Paola Salio on extreme events and early warning systems. The event was very successful with 160 attendees, many of them undergraduate students from the meteorological and oceanographic programs of the FCEN and colleagues from other universities and institutes from other Argentinian provinces.
3. Informal meeting between the WCRP chair and the research, operational and government agencies communities
This meeting was an opportunity for local researchers as well as personnel from operational and governmental agencies to interact directly with Professor Stammer about how the WCRP works and how to get engaged. In total around 20 persons attended, with a predominance of young permanent researchers that have not been involved in WCRP yet. Their primary doubts was how to make contact with the different WCRP initiatives that they are interested in, as well as doubts on whether their contribution could be valuable for WCRP. In addition to Detlef Stammer, Mariano Masiokas, Co-Chair of ANDEX/GEWEX, Annd Sörensson, Focal Point of My Climate Risk and Panel member of GHP/GEWEX and Leandro Días, member of ESMO, shared their experience as involved in WCRP from the Global South.
Meeting with Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Botanic Garden, 21st of August
This meeting, hosted by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA), was attended by Clara Muzzio (Vice-Major of the Buenos Aires city), Natalia Persini (Subsecretary of Environment of the Buenos Aires city), Lola Giménez (Responsible of International Relations of the Vice-Major of Buenos Aires city), Ignacio Miguel Baistrocchi (Ministry of Public Spaces). The scientific community was represented by Inés Camilloni, Alvaro Scardilli, Carla Gulizia, Ana Carolina Herrero and Anna Sörensson.
The meeting had the following objectives:
Detlef Stammer had the opportunity to present the WCRP ongoing initiatives and future plans, for which the GCBA showed interest especially to water resource management and preparation for extreme weather events.
Clara Muzzio and Natalia Persini talked about the impacts of rising sea levels in the Río de la Plata basin and the measures needed to protect Buenos Aires' coastal infrastructure. The context of Buenos Aires city and different international experiences on coastal adaptation strategies and climate risk mitigation was discussed as well as the importance of Early Warning Systems and the use of remote sensing technologies and monitoring systems to improve the city's response capacity to extreme weather events, such as heat waves and intense rainfall, etc.
There could possibly be a collaboration between the WCRP and the GCBA to integrate climate and oceanographic data into urban planning and climate change mitigation strategies.
Visit to the project Anticipating the Flood, 22th of August
We visited the secondary school 130 in the neighborhood Laferrere where members of the Science Club “María Elena Woroszylo” received us. PhD students Camila Prudente and Nadia Testani, both members of the Argentina WCRP My Climate Risk Hub, and the researcher Diego Moreira made a presentation about the project “Anticipating the Flood” (see separate article in the newsletter). A team of students who participate in a Science Club showed Detlef some of their ongoing science projects and had the chance to talk to Detlef and ask him several questions (e.g. In the place you live, do you suffer from floods as well?).
The students then took us on a walk through the neighborhood to see the river that overflows and causes flooding and evacuations several times per year. A discussion about how the socio-economic and climate dimensions overlap in a complex manner was extensively covered.
We also had the chance to oversee the massive waste problem which exacerbates the flood risk.
Meeting with Vice-Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, 22th of August
The Vice-Governor Verónica Magario received us at the Senate of the Province of Buenos Aires. Also present in the meeting were the Senator Walter Torchio (President of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the Senate); Senator Sofía Vanelli, and Teresa García (President of the Group of Senators of Unión por la Patria Party in the Senate). From the research community, Anna Sörensoon, Carla Gulizia and Diego Moreira attended the meeting.
Detlef Stammer had the opportunity to present the WCRP ongoing initiatives and future plans to the vice-governor and the senators. He highlighted the need for urgent climate actions in the context of the global climate crisis. Buenos Aires province is a region where agriculture and livestock production is one of the main productive activities and these have a large contribution to the national greenhouse gasses emissions. In this context, Prof. Detlef explained the current state of climate science knowledge and the ongoing scientific discussions around the emerging topics such as climate intervention and carbon dioxide removal strategies.
The meeting was an opportunity to enhance communication between local researchers and the decision-makers to further advise the senators on topics related to climate and environment.
As a parallel outcome, Prof Dr Diego Moreira had the chance to comment on his research in the La Plata river estuary, and after an exchange with Senator Sofía Vanelli, they realized that there were several in situ measurements that were not public and could be very useful to the research community. After the meeting, the Senator provided time series data on surges and water levels from the beginning of the 20th century, which were gathered under an hydroway project in the province, but were not publicly available.
Meeting with Minister of Environment of the Province of Buenos Aires, 22th of August
We visited the Minister of Environment, Daniela Vilar, and her team at the Ministry in La Plata city, capital city of the Buenos Aires province. The meeting included presentations of eight projects which are currently being developed under the Minister of Environment umbrella covering climate action related plans in the Province of Buenos Aires. These were: 1) Climate Change Response Plan, 2) Integrated Coastal Management Plan as an adaptation strategy to coastal erosion, 3) Anticipating Floods Programme: strengthening community warning systems, 4) Updating the Greenhouse Gases Inventory, 5) Energy Transition Plan for the Province of Buenos Aires towards 2030, 6) Low Emissions Hydrogen Strategy, 7) Clean Energy Programme, 8) Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Programme. Overall, the following discussion after the presentations highlighted the relevance of including a science component in the programmes and plans; the participatory work of and involvement with the local communities; the importance of performing territorial assessment diagnostics as a starting point, and then using sectorial diagnostics for developing recommendations for public policies. Finally, but not least, they emphasized the need for strengthening capacity development of local governance.
During the second part of the meeting Prof. Stammer could introduce WCRP ongoing activities and its future plans. The meeting was very productive since the Minister staff were very prepared and interested in the potential synergies with the science sector.
Meeting with the Direction of the National Weather Service, 23rd of August
A meeting with the Director of the National Weather Service (SMN), Alejandro De La Torre, together with Lorena Ferreira, Head of the Sectoral Services Direction, and three SMN researchers, Yanina García Skabar, María Emilia Ruiz and Mercedes Poggi, working under the National Direction for Science and Innovation in Products and Services. From the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET), Leandro Diaz, Marisol Osman, Anna Sörenson and Carla Gulizia attended the meeting.
The SMN representatives presented the services and products developed by the organization to Prof. Stammer, while they also had the chance to learn more about the WCRP ongoing initiatives and its future plans. Furthermore, a productive dialogue between the attendees raised several opportunities where the SMN could contribute more actively, such as WCRP GPEX. Moreover, an exchange between Prof. Stammer and the Director of the Met Service towards potential collaborations between Argentinean Space Agency and other agencies from abroad have started during the meeting and have continued online.