Integrating Climate Information & Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience

USAID's November 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Forum will focus on the Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience project. Our speakers will be Lisa Goddard (Director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society) and Jim Buizer (Director of the Climate Adaptation and International Development Program in the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona).

WHEN: Thursday, November 20th from 4:00pm-5:30pm
WHERE: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036.

Call in number - United States: (888) 534-8066 or International: (678) 384-4787
Conference code - 7720928816

Please send your RSVPs to Joyce-Lynn.Njinga@Engilitycorp.com by COB Wednesday, November 19th.

ABSTRACT:
Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience

The impacts of climate variability and change are broad - this century has already seen a million deaths and $1.7 trillion in losses due to the interaction of society and geophysical phenomena, primarily extreme weather. Climate-related impacts are increasingly affecting communities in the developing world, which makes the complex challenge of international development even more challenging.

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University and the University of Arizona (UA) have joined forces with communities and institutions in the Caribbean, South Asia and West Africa to develop relevant, usable climate information and connect it to real decisions and development challenges. Through a 5-year (2013-2018) program, jointly funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development, this team is helping these regions build resilience to the impacts of climate on water supplies, food production, and other important sectors.

The presentation will describe the unique characteristics of this program, lessons learned to date, and plans going forward.

SPEAKERS:
Dr. Lisa Goddard is the Director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), a senior research scientist at the IRI and an adjunct associate professor within the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Columbia University. Lisa is Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the NOAA and USAID funded project: Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience. Lisa’s research is aimed at improving the quality and content of climate predictions. She has extensive experience in forecasting methodology and has published papers on El Niño, seasonal climate forecasting and verification, and probabilistic climate change projections. In this research, she focuses on diagnosing and extracting meaningful information from climate models and available observations. Lisa received her Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University and her B.A. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley.

James (Jim) Buizer is Professor of Climate Adaptation in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and Director of the Climate Adaptation and International Development Program in the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on mechanisms to incorporate scientifically based findings of projected impacts of climate variability and change into development decisions. Jim is Co-Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the NOAA and USAID funded project: Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience. From 2003-2011 Jim served as Senior Policy Advisor to the President at Arizona State University, where he led the design and establishment of the Global Institute of Sustainability, and its degree-granting School. Prior to ASU, Jim was Director of the Climate and Societal Interactions Division at NOAA in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for designing and leading integrated, multidisciplinary research and applications programs positioned at the climate and societal interface. His degrees are in Oceanography and Marine Policy from the University of Washington.