IGNITE Stage

Title: “El Niño 2015-2016, servicios climáticos para la gestión de riesgos en América Latina, aprendizajes, buenas prácticas y retos pendientes”
Day and time: (28) Miercoles - Wednesday - Mercredi - 8 - 12:00 - 12:20
Presenter: Rodney Martínez
Organization: CIIFEN
Eje Temático:
Thematic Area:
Integrando la adaptación al cambio climático, el desarrollo y la reducción del riesgo de desastres

Integrating climate change adaptation, development and disaster risk reduction
Description: Climate Services in Latin America: bridging the global information with the regional needs to support NMHSs: The case of El Niño 2015-2016
Rodney Martínez*, Eduardo Zambrano*, Juan José Nieto*
Abstract
The International Research Center on El Niño (CIIFEN) has the mission to implement actions to consolidate the science-policy interface, providing climate services for risk management and adaptation; CIIFEN was also officially designated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as a Regional Climate Center for west of South America. During El Niño 2015-2016, the intense interaction with the scientific community and decision makers resulted in 10 key lessons that are described here. 1) A robust and sustained global climate observing system is critical to ensure a timely detection of El Niño onset. 2) Communicating as simple as possible, the physical processes involved on El Niño evolution is the start point to reduce misinformation. 3) To communicate with clarity the diverse impacts and timing of El Niño around the world helps to minimize confusion because of media misinformation. 4) To integrate global and regional information to support National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the communication of El Niño impacts, at national level. 5) To inform as clear as possible the similarities about the current El Niño with previous events to better understand the potential impacts. 6) To ensure an adequate integration between El Niño extended forecast, the regional seasonal prediction and the weather forecast at national level. 7) Messaging El Niño including information about past/potential impacts should be an essential part of the communication strategy. 8 )To show numbers: casualties, people affected or GDP impacts, engage authorities and high level decision makers. 9) Recommend concrete and feasible cross cutting actions to cope with El Niño. 10) Identify the key issues in the sectors to reduce El Niño impacts; keep a consistent message and being proactive with social media, international meetings and other fora. Finally some actions are proposed to bridge the last mile in the information chain.
Key words: El Niño, NMHSs, Climate services

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