NORKLIMA
May 2007
A number of newly launched projects under Norway´s research programme on climate change (NORKLIMA) will explore how climate change affects humans and society and what we can do to adapt to the changes. One objective of the programme is to enhance cooperation between researchers studying climate change and researchers studying impacts of climate change and adaptive responses by human society.
One of the projects, headed by CICERO, focuses on the electricity sector. Another project, led by the Vestlandsforskning research institute, will study climate related natural disasters, such as mudslides and floods in an historical perspective. In this context the implementation of emergency planning measures during previous natural disasters and what can be learned from this will be examined.
In a further project the Centre for Technology and Society at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will study the attitudes toward climate issues of various stakeholders, including researchers, technologists, general public, the media, politicians and the public administration. The project seeks to provide answers about how to disseminate knowledge about climate change to those who will be implementing this knowledge - from decision-makers to the public at large.
The potential for and limitations to adapting to climate change in Norway will be explored by the University of Oslo. One aim is to put together a kind of user manual (based on a model from the UK) for various stakeholders, instructing them how to prepare for climate change.
Researchers participating in the new projects on social aspects of climate change are eagerly awaiting the findings from the new collaborative NorClim project (Climate of Norway and the Arctic in the 21st Century), which is designed to calculate the future climate of Norway with greater accuracy than has previously been possible. The aim of the project is to obtain knowledge about the future climate that can be applied directly by those studying the impacts of climate change as well as those involved in planning adaptation measures. This project involves cooperation between 10 research institutions and has been granted NOK 15 million per year for four years from the Research Council. The NorClim project will also generate data for the next UN report on climate change.
Both the NorClim project and the new projects on social aspects of climate change have been awarded funding under the Research Council's NORKLIMA programme.