The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) has said it is currently preparing a National Action Plan for Climate Change Adaptation (RAN-API) in response to the worsening global climate situation.
The action plan refers to the CORDEX-SEA (Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment South East Asia) framework under the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which has also become a reference for national action plans.
“The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency has collaborated with CORDEX Southeast Asia (CORDEX-SEA) to conduct research, training, and workshops related to climate projection data,” BMKG Head Dwikorita Karnawati said in a written statement received here on Friday.
The action plan is being made as Indonesia is prone to experiencing the impacts of climate change, she explained.
Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that the earth’s temperature has reached unprecedented levels, at least in the last two thousand years, she noted.
Karnawati predicted that the earth’s temperature would reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or higher between 2021 and 2040. Under a high emissions scenario, this threshold will be reached in much less time, she said.
The impact of climate change in the country has been evident in the increase in extreme weather and extreme climate events, the increase in temperature, the reduced layer of snow at the peak of Jayawijaya, and the rise in sea levels, she added.
Climate change has had a major impact on Indonesia, a country made up of many small islands and high annual rainfall, she remarked.
“This condition requires adaptation and mitigation of climate change to reduce the impact of hydro-meteorological disasters and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Indonesia is committed and working hard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent to 41 percent from the business-as-usual scenario by 2030,” she said.
Karnawati opined that climate projection data is needed to address the uncertainty of future climate conditions. It must be downgraded from global resolution to high resolution with several climate projection scenarios, so that it can serve as a basis to determine the right strategy and planning in the future, she said.
BMKG hosted an online workshop from November 15 to 17, 2021 to obtain climate projection data in collaboration with Ramkhamhaeng University Center of Regional Climate Change and Renewable Energy (RU-CORE), Bangkok, Thailand and the Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, the National University of Malaysia, and CORDEX-SEA, she informed.
The workshop had several objectives, including the dissemination of CORDEX activities for advancing science and the application of regional climate downscaling, particularly in the Southeast Asia region, Karnawati said.
It also aimed to push for better progress of CORDEX-SEA in advancing the science and application of regional climate downscaling in Southeast Asia through regional partnerships, she added.
Additionally, it also served as a means to share information about several publications, she said. The workshop has been conducted in several countries in Southeast Asia that utilize CORDEX-SEA data to generate climate information to deal with climate change issues in the region, and share information about potential applications of CORDEX-SEA resolution data, she added.
Source: Antara News