CSIRO produced national climate projections in 1990, 1992, 1996 and 2001 and, jointly with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), in 2007. The next set of national climate projections are planned for release in 2014, representing a significant climate science milestone timed to follow the next official, global assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“In three years, Australians will have the latest climate projections for the 21st Century for a range of factors including; sea levels, seasonal-average temperatures, rainfall, as well as extreme weather events such as heatwaves, fires, droughts, floods, and cyclones,” says a senior scientist with the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, CSIRO’s Dr Penny Whetton.
In an address today to the Greenhouse 2011 climate change conference in Cairns, Dr Whetton said that information will only be of value if it is clearly communicated and then rigorously applied in formulating adaptation strategies. Read more