UK-China leading the way on climate science

With COP21 meeting in Paris this week, and a recent announcement that we are on track to have the hottest year on record, it was timely that over 150 researchers from the UK and China gathered together to discuss advancements in climate science for the second annual science meeting of the Climate Science for Service Partnership.

The climate is changing, the challenge is limiting and adapting to that change. The Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) started several years ago with a few scientists in a room discussing what they could do with a modest investment. When the UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (the Newton Fund in China) was announced by the UK Prime Minister in December 2013, the Climate Science for Service Partnership, the largest programme under Newton, began.

Many parts of the world are affected by climate change and variability. Extremes such as heavy rainfall, typhoons and drought are likely to be affected by a changing climate. Understanding and communicating these changes is what CSSP is all about. Formed by the UK Met Office, the Chinese Meteorological Administration, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Atmospheric Physics, CSSP will create partnerships between these institutions and other leading centres that will develop climate science and pull it through to services that address the challenges of a changing climate.

The programme is still young, but there are already many exciting developments. The key to CSSP is bringing UK and Chinese expertise together. Joint analysis of climate model outputs from each country has led to identifying ways of improving each others’ models. Ensuring the best quality measurements from satellites is essential as this is fed into climate models, the UK and China have been working together to ensure the measurement quality of the landmark Chinese Feng Yun (FY) – 3 series of satellites. Another key element is in digitizing paper historic climate data held across SE Asia; this helps improve climate models. Developments such as these are signs of a strengthening partnership.

The first research paper, stating that due to human activity Northern China could see an 11-fold increase in the chance of record breaking spring temperatures in the future, was recently published. This is likely to have an effect on agriculture and food security; understanding the reasons behind this change will strengthen our response to a changing climate not only in China, but the world. Other research in development looks at improvements to modelling of extreme heavy rainfall which are not well captured by existing models. Producing detailed modelling is vital for producing better forecasts and warning systems. Work to date has successfully modelled the July 2012 heavy rainfall.

The science being developed will be used to develop services that decision makers can use to promote climate resilient development. Examples of this include developing better modelling so that wind and solar farms can be better located and in a way that maximizes their usage out to a decade or more. Understanding periods of drought has obvious importance to China’s hydropower and shift towards a lower carbon economy. Drought and flooding also have an effect on China’s food security; however, looking from a global perspective is a relatively new approach that will focus on the complex interactions of climate and weather.

Much is expected from COP21. The climate is changing and is having an effect on us already. Bringing together the best scientists from the UK and China under CSSP, will help develop resilience to this change for China, but also through knowledge applicable to the world.