Climate projections provide the best information available on likely future climate conditions. The information is valuable for decision makers, including governments and those investing in infrastructure, agriculture, urban planning and health.
ACCSP investment has allowed the generation of climate projections that are used by governments, industry and communities to plan for and adapt to our changing climate.
Advances in our understanding of climate processes and the climate system, and our evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of climate models resulting from ACCSP research, allowed the development of national climate projections capability for Australia. This includes the science, the approaches and the projections themselves. This has been very important in building the nation’s preparedness for climate change and information needed for regional adaptation plans.
Through the ACCSP, researchers in CSIRO’s climate impact group developed the first climate change scenarios for Australia in 1992, with updated scenarios released in 1996, 2001 and, in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology, in 2007.
ACCSP science underpinned the 2015 climate projections prepared by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, that were funded through the Regional Natural Resource Management Planning for Climate Change Fund. These projections, which draw on improvements in climate models and our understanding of climate processes, are the most comprehensive to date and include more climate variables and greater regional information that earlier projections.
For more science highlights see the ACCSP Annual Reports.