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Regional climate service providers such as the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) have often produced “grey literature” scientific project reports and impact assessments for the regional stakeholders they serve. These reports are suitable for those with some experience in adaptation and climate science. However, for the broader audience of policymakers, planners and the general public these reports are often too technical to be of use. To address the inaccessibility of these reports and provide usable information for decision making, PCIC has taken three main approaches. The first of these approaches is producing high-level summary reports to accompany some of PCIC’s more technical project reports. It is challenging to provide plain language summaries of the important findings without misleading readers or glossing over the subtleties of climate change impacts. However, anecdotal feedback from users indicates that the availability of summary reports dramatically increases the usability of the information provided to them. The second approach is collaborating and co-writing project reports directly with our users. This approach fosters constant learning, improved understanding and strengthens two-way communication between PCIC and regional stakeholders. The third approach is to develop short, high-level extension notes called science briefs. These cover regionally-relevant findings from the scientific community, contextualizing them and discussing what they mean for the users PCIC serves. They also serve as a way for PCIC to address frequently-asked questions in an in-depth manner. This poster discusses the methods and communication principles PCIC employs in the development of these projects and some of the lessons that have been learned along the way.

(Delivered at the 7th Annual Northwest Climate Conference in Stevenson, Washington, November 14-16, 2016.)

The City of Vancouver is warming. Global climate models project annual average temperature to increase by 1.7°C to 4.0°C, and indicate an average increase of 2.9°C between the 1971-2000 baseline and the 2050s. This fact sheet provides specific information intended to facilitate adaptation as the climate changes. All values in the summary are for the 2050s relative to the 1971-2000 baseline. Additional variables, seasons, projections for the 2080s, and maps were also produced and provided to the City of Vancouver.

The Climate Symposium 2014, organized by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), was entitled “Climate Research and Earth Observation from Space—Climate Information for Decision Making.” Session topics revolved around the six Grand Science Challenges of the WCRP and addressed the specific need for, and role of, climate observations from space. Based on the presentations and discussions at the symposium, the Science Programme Committee identified main findings and recommendations, which are presented in this summary.