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Gaining a holistic understanding of extreme weather, from its physical drivers to its impacts on society and ecosystems, is key to supporting future risk reduction and preparedness measures. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art, knowledge gaps and key open questions in the study of extreme weather events over the vulnerable eastern Mediterranean. This region is situated in a transition zone between subtropical and mid-latitude climates. The large-scale atmospheric circulation and its interaction with regional synoptic systems (i.e., Cyprus Lows, Red Sea Troughs, Persian Troughs, "Sharav" Lows) and high-pressure systems mainly govern extreme weather. Complex orographic features further play an important role in the generation of extreme weather. Most extreme weather events, including heavy precipitation, cold spells, floods and windstorms, are associated with Cyprus Lows or active Red Sea Troughs, whereas heat waves are related with either Persian Troughs and sub-tropical high-pressure systems in summer or the Sharav Low during springtime. In future decades, heat waves and droughts are projected to significantly increase in both frequency and intensity. Changes in heavy precipitation may vary in sign and magnitude depending on the scale, severity and region of interest. There are still relatively large uncertainties concerning the physical understanding and the projected changes of cold spells, windstorms and compound extremes, as these types of events received comparatively little attention in the literature. We further identify knowledge gaps that relate to the societal impacts of extreme weather. These gaps mainly relate to the effects extreme weather may have on mortality, morbidity and infrastructure in the eastern Mediterranean. Research is currently limited in this context, and we recommend strengthening the database of analyzed case studies. We trust that this can only be suitably accomplished by inter-disciplinary and international regional collaboration (in spite of political unrest).

This guide presents a joint effort of projects funded under the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) (http://www.jpi-climate.eu/ERA4CS), a co- funded action initiated by JPI Climate with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462), 15 national public Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), and 30 Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) from 18 European countries. This guide sets out to increase the understanding of different pathways, methods, and approaches to improve knowledge co-production of climate services with users as a value-added activity of the ERA4CS Programme. Reflecting on the experiences of 16 of the 26 projects funded under ERA4CS, this guide aims to define and recommend good practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-production of climate services to researchers, users, funding agencies, and private sector service providers. Drawing on responses from ERA4CS project teams to a questionnaire and interviews, this guide maps the diversity of methods for stakeholder identification, involvement, and engagement. It also conducts an analysis of methods, tools, and mechanisms for engagement as well as evaluation of co-production processes. This guide presents and discusses good practice examples based on the review of the ERA4CS projects, identifying enablers and barriers for key elements in climate service co-production processes. These were: namely (i) Forms of Engagement; (ii) Entry Points for Engagement; and, (iii) Intensity of Involvement. It further outlines key ingredients to enhance the quality of co-producing climate services with users and stakeholders. Based on the analysis of the lessons learned from ERA4CS projects, as well as a review of key concepts in the recent literature on climate service co-production, we provide a set of recommendations for researchers, users, funders and private sector providers of climate services. ; This report is not externally peer-reviewed Revisions: 2022-02-11 The report PDF was published. 2022-05-06 An incorrect spelled author name was ...

There is no doubt that anthropogenic global warming is accelerating damage to cultural heritage. Adaptation measures are required to reduce the loss of sites, monuments and remains. However, little research has been directed towards understanding potential impacts of climate adaptation measures in other governmental sectors on cultural heritage. We provide a case study demonstrating that winter road salt, used to reduce ice related accidents, damages historical iron milestones. As the climate warms, road salt use will move north into areas where sites have been protected by contiguous winter snow cover. This will expose Artic/sub-Arctic cultural heritage, including Viking graves and Sami sites, to a new anthropogenic source of damage. Research and planning should therefore include the evaluation of secondary impacts when choosing climate adaptation strategies.

Multi-hazard events can be associated with larger socio-economic impacts than single-hazard events. Understanding the spatio-temporal interactions that characterize the former is therefore of relevance to disaster risk reduction measures. Here, we consider two high-impact hazards, namely wet and dry hydrological extremes, and quantify their global co-occurrence. We define these using the monthly self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index based on the Penman-Monteith model (sc_PDSI_pm), covering the period 1950-2014, at 2.5 degrees horizontal resolution. We find that the land areas affected by extreme wet, dry, and wet-dry events (i.e. geographically remote yet temporally co-occurring wet or dry extremes) are all increasing with time, the trends of which in dry and wet-dry episodes are significant (p value « 0.01). The most geographically widespread wet-dry event was associated with the strong La Nina in 2010. This caused wet-dry anomalies across a land area of 21 million km(2) with documented high-impact flooding and drought episodes spanning diverse regions. To further elucidate the interplay of wet and dry extremes at a grid cell scale, we introduce two new metrics: the wet-dry (WD) ratio and the extreme transition (ET) time intervals. The WD ratio measures the relative occurrence of wet or dry extremes, whereas ET quantifies the average separation time of hydrological extremes with opposite signs. The WD ratio shows that the incidence of wet extremes dominates over dry extremes in the USA, northern and southern South America, northern Europe, north Africa, western China, and most of Australia. Conversely, dry extremes are more prominent in most of the remaining regions. The median ET for wet to dry is similar to 27 months, while the dry-to-wet median ET is 21 months. We also evaluate correlations between wet-dry hydrological extremes and leading modes of climate variability, namely the El Nina-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). We find that ENSO and PDO have a similar influence globally, with the former significantly impacting (p value < 0.05) a larger area (18.1 % of total sc_PDSI_pm area) compared to the latter (12.0 %), whereas the AMO shows an almost inverse pattern and significantly impacts the largest area overall (18.9 %). ENSO and PDO show the most significant correlations over northern South America, the central and western USA, the Middle East, eastern Russia, and eastern Australia. On the other hand, the AMO shows significant associations over Mexico, Brazil, central Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, China, and eastern Russia. Our analysis brings new insights on hydrological multi-hazards that are of relevance to governments and organizations with globally distributed interests. Specifically, the multi-hazard maps may be used to evaluate worst-case disaster scenarios considering the potential co-occurrence of wet and dry hydrological extremes.

Since 2015, Uppsala University has hosted the Zennström Visiting Professorship in Climate Change Leadership, part of a 10-year series of visiting professorships (2015-2025) funded by Zennström Philanthropies. The ambition of the initiative is to tackle some of the largest challenges climate change poses to humanity, by developing new solutions and enabling transformational change at the intersection of science, politics and innovation. Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester and Deputy Director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research was the second holder of this professorship, taking up the positionin August 2016. He has pioneered research on carbon budgets and pathways to acceptable mitigation levels with a focus on Sweden and the UK (see Anderson et al., 2017 and Kuriakose et al., 2018). In 2017, Järfälla municipality contacted the Climate Change Leadership (CCL) Node at Uppsala University seeking a carbon budget for their municipality which was published later that year (Anderson et al., 2017). When this report was completed, more municipalities contacted CCL to request similar carbon budget calculations. The great interest resulted in the project, "Koldioxidbudgetar 2020-2040" (Carbon budgets 2020-2040) starting in2018 in collaboration with Ramboll. This ongoing project is characterised by a high level of collaboration and knowledge sharing between municipalities (kommuner), regional governments (län) and the Climate Change Leadership Node in order to produce reports that meet the needs and expectations of participating governing bodies. This report is part II of the project. Part I consists of individual carbon budget reports submitted to participating Swedish municipalities and regional governments.

It is widely acknowledged that the greenhouse gas emissions reduction pledges made by national governments are insufficient to achieve what is required by science to avoid dangerous levels of global warming. In parallel to the formal climate negotiations, a multitude of international cooperative initiatives (ICIs) are now engaging in efforts to address the growing emissions gap. A database and web platform have been developed that presents the most current and comprehensive publically available collection of information on ICIs in operation. The web platform includes details of more than 180 mitigation-focused initiatives that have the potential for impact at the global scale. The project also makes recommendations for continuing support for the database and additional activities to support an increasing use of the database to inform negotiators and other stakeholders.

Sustainable and inclusive decarbonisation of European cities is a pre-requisite for achieving carbon neutrality at the EU level. As melting pots and demand hubs, cities are responsible for a majority of greenhouse gas emissions. For a transition towards zero-carbon cities, in the EU as elsewhere, a holistic approach and extensive collaboration is needed that can move city action beyond simply increasing the number of localized low-carbon solutions. This DEEDS Policy Brief outlines key features of EU research and innovation needs and proposes policy measures to promote zero-carbon European cities. ; This Polciy Brief is published as part of the deliverables within the Horizon 2020 DEEDs (Dialogue on European Decarbonisation Pathways) project (GA No. 776646) ; Horizon2020 project DEEDS (Dialogue on European Decarbonisation Pathways) GA No. 776646

The Paris Agreement aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels (and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C), but does not refer specifically to greenhouse gas emissions from the international maritime transport sector. This Report outlines the findings of a project commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers, focusing on opportunities for Nordic countries to achieve a transition to low-carbon shipping at national, regional and global scales. It is informed by discussions at the World Maritime University in Malmö in December 2016 between representatives of governments, businesses, NGOs and the research community. The Report presents a low-carbon roadmap for shipping with actions and outcomes concerning low-carbon technology, ship operations, finance, public policy, and public-private partnerships.

Climate engineering (geoengineering) has been widely discussed as a potential instrument for curbing global warming if politics fails to deliver green house gas emission reductions. This debate has lost momentum over the last couple of years, but is now being renewed in the wake of the December 2015 Paris climate change agreement. Resurgent interest primarily stems from two elements of the Paris agreement. First, by defining the long term goal as "achiev[ing] a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases" instead of decarbonization, the agreement can be interpreted as providing leeway for climate engineering proposals. Second, the agreement formulated a temperature goal of "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C". In response, several scientists argued that these goals may require climate engineering. As these discussions will affect the forthcoming review of pathways toward 1.5°C warming, this policy brief takes stock of climate engineering. It draws on the expertise of Linköping University's Climate Engineering (LUCE) interdisciplinary research programme. The brief provides an overview of the status of academic debate on climate engineering regarding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); stratospheric aerosol injection; and mass media reporting and public engagement.

The Swedish Regional Climate Modeling Program (SWECLIM) was a 6.5-year national research effort with the aim of providing the Swedish society with more detailed regional climate scenarios than those available from international global climate mode! simulations. SWECLIM built up a new scientific niche in Sweden, namely that of climate modeling, provided users with regionally detailed climate scenarios, expert advice and synthesis of climate changescience. Regional climate modeling was a major activity, supported with studies of climate processes as well as on observed data on the Baltic Sea, regional hydrology and meteorology. The major impact study part was on hydrological modeling, to elaborate the potential impact of regional-scale climate change on hydropower, dam safety and water resources in general. Other types of impact studies were not performed by SWECLIM itself, but means were provided for outside experts to pursue such knowledge. This fmihered the general understanding of climate change and created new insights into planning processes, especially in Sweden, but also on theNordic, European and global arenas.Examples of practical users of the results were experts and decision-makers within national, regional and local administration, organizations, businesses, politicians, as well as media and the general public. These Swedish cfforts on climate science also contributed to international research and assessment networks, and to the quest for better knowledge base to act on in dealing with the climate problem.This repor! provides the final reporting of the SWECLIM-program, building on earlier reports and complements the results published in scientific journals, as reports, presented in meetings and provided to the general public. The focus here is on the work undertaken

Purpose As climate change shocks and stresses increasingly affect urban areas in developing countries, resilience is imperative for the purposes of preparation, recovery and adaptation. This study aims to investigate demographic characteristics and social networks that influence the household capacity to prepare, recover and adapt when faced with prolonged droughts or erratic rainfall events in Mbale municipality in Eastern Uganda. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional research design was used to elicit subjective opinions. Previous studies indicate the importance of subjective approaches for measuring social resilience but their use has not been well explored in the context of quantifying urban resilience to climate change shocks and stresses. This study uses 389 structured household interviews to capture demographic characteristics, social networks and resilience capacities. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis. Findings The ability of low-income households to meet their daily expenditure needs, household size, and networks with relatives and non government organizations (NGOs) were significant determinants of preparedness, recovery and adaptation to prolonged droughts or erratic rainfall events. Originality/value Even the low-income households are substantially more likely to prepare for and recover from prolonged droughts or erratic rainfall events if they can meet their daily expenditure needs. This finding is noteworthy because the poorest in society are generally the most vulnerable to hazards.

In order to investigate how climate efforts and competitiveness are connected in the Nordic region, CEO's and top management of some of the leading companies in the five countries have been interviewed. According to the interviews, the Nordic region can contribute to reaching the Paris Agreement. Climate change is top of mind of CEOs, chairs and top-level management in Nordic companies, and contributing to reaching global climate goals is not only altruistic. Almost all companies say that climate efforts can boost competitiveness. There is strong support for the Nordic region to be front runners in global climate efforts and acting together to push the EU to adapt more ambitious climate policies. The interviewed companies have approximately 540 000 employees. The aggregated revenue of the companies is around 200 billion EUR, corresponding to 17 percent of the GDP of the Nordic region.

Nuclear power faces an uncertain future in Sweden. Major political parties, including the Green party of the coalition-government have recently strongly advocated for a policy to decommission the Swedish nuclear fleet prematurely. Here we examine the environmental, health and (to a lesser extent) economic impacts of implementing such a plan. The process has already been started through the early shutdown of the Barsebäck plant. We estimate that the political decision to shut down Barsebäck has resulted in ~2400 avoidable energy-production-related deaths and an increase in global CO2 emissions of 95 million tonnes to date (October 2014). The Swedish reactor fleet as a whole has reached just past its halfway point of production, and has a remaining potential production of up to 2100 TWh. The reactors have the potential of preventing 1.9–2.1 gigatonnes of future CO2-emissions if allowed to operate their full lifespans. The potential for future prevention of energy-related-deaths is 50,000–60,000. We estimate an 800 billion SEK (120 billion USD) lower-bound estimate for the lost tax revenue from an early phase-out policy. In sum, the evidence shows that implementing a 'nuclear-free' policy for Sweden (or countries in a similar situation) would constitute a highly retrograde step for climate, health and economic protection.

This paper examines the emerging phenomenon of climate emergency declarations. We focus on the case of Victoria Australia and the 30 councils who have declared a climate emergency with a particular focus on three councils. We explore the drivers, meanings, and implications and to what extent the subsequent plans reflect a reframing of local government roles and actions. We find the emergency declaration movement is catalysing councils beyond symbolic declarations potentially opening up space for change and disruption. Of interest in this paper is also the principal and theoretical implications for citizens, local government, and for research that is connected with this emerging trend. We highlight conclusions, ideas, and perspectives that can be drawn from this study of the Australian practice of climate emergency declarations.

The report provides detailed information on emission trends and European actions on air quality during 2016-2020, in support of the second UNEP global summary report of policies and programmes to reduce air pollution. The pollutants in focus are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, ammonia, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Thanks to the continued strengthening of policies developed under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, EU policies and legislation, as well as national legislations, emissions of most monitored air pollutants have decreased. Since 2010, this trend has continued in Western, Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Emissions are however increasing in Central Asian countries. Looking at the entire European and Central Asian region covered in this report, there is one pollutant that stands out: ammonia. Ammonia emissions have in all sub-regions increased during 2010-2017, and there is no sign of decline. The EU member states and Norway, UK and Switzerland, with the largest past emission reductions, are also those with well-developed air quality monitoring and assessment infrastructure. In addition, these countries report the largest portfolio of further actions to reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner, including investments in energy efficiency improvements as well as in clean technologies. Awareness and progress in efforts to improve air quality assessment infrastructures in Eastern and South Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia are improving, and there are several examples of knowledge-sharing initiatives and capacity building efforts.