Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action

The document argues that climate services—the production and use of climate knowledge for decision-making—are essential for adaptation but are currently underdeveloped and misaligned with user needs in the developing world. It identifies critical gaps in the use of long-term climate projections, which are often unsuitable for planning horizons of 10-30 years, and calls for a shift toward resilience-based approaches and improved national meteorological service (NMS) capacity. The authors propose ten recommendations focused on co-production between providers and users, filling observational data gaps, and reforming data policies to treat meteorological data as a public good.

• Climate services are defined as the "production, translation, transfer, and use of climate knowledge and information in relevant decision-making, policy and planning", extending beyond raw data to include an understanding of decision-maker needs.
• There is a significant mismatch between the timescales of climate change projections and actual adaptation planning; while many projections look to the end of the century, most adaptation decisions have planning horizons of only 10-30 years.
• The uncritical use of downscaled, end-of-century climate projections can lead to maladaptation because these models often poorly represent natural variability and extremes, and may exhibit significant biases in simulating recent local climates.
• Effective climate services require 'co-production', a dialogue between users and providers to ensure information is relevant. However, this is often hindered by capacity constraints on both the supply and demand sides.
• National Meteorological Services (NMSs) in developing countries often face financial and political constraints, and many have adopted data policies that treat observational data as a source of revenue rather than a public good, restricting its availability for adaptation.
• Current seasonal forecasting conventions, such as the use of 'terciles' (below-normal, normal, above-normal), often fail to meet the needs of local decision-makers due to a lack of local interpretation and ambiguity regarding uncertainty.
• To address data gaps, the ENACTS initiative has demonstrated that merging quality-controlled station records with satellite proxy data can produce high-resolution gridded historical data sets that are more useful for local decision-making than global products.
• For long-term planning under deep uncertainty, the paper suggests moving away from 'predict-then-act' approaches toward strategies of robustness (reducing vulnerability across many scenarios), resilience (recovering quickly from shocks), and flexibility (planning to change over time).
• Knowledge regarding the translation, communication, and governance of climate services is highly fragmented, often trapped within closed institutional or disciplinary contexts, which leads to redundant donor-funded projects that reinvent existing methods.

APA

Hansen, J., Furlow, J., Goddard, L., Nissan, H., Vaughan, C., Rose, A., Fiondella, F., Braun, M., Steynor, A., Jack, C., Chinowsky, P., Thomson, M., Baethgen, W., Dinku, T., Senato, A. Y., Phuong, D. M., Huq, S., & Ndiaye, O. (2019). Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Scaling_Climate_Services_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Hansen, James, John Furlow, Lisa Goddard, Hannah Nissan, Cathy Vaughan, Alison Rose, Francesco Fiondella, et al. Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Scaling_Climate_Services_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hansen |first1=James |last2=Furlow |first2=John |last3=Goddard |first3=Lisa |last4=Nissan |first4=Hannah |last5=Vaughan |first5=Cathy |last6=Rose |first6=Alison |last7=Fiondella |first7=Francesco |last8=Braun |first8=Mélody |last9=Steynor |first9=Anna |display-authors=etal |title=Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2 August 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Scaling_Climate_Services_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hansen2019scaling, author = {Hansen, James and Furlow, John and Goddard, Lisa and Nissan, Hannah and Vaughan, Cathy and Rose, Alison and Fiondella, Francesco and Braun, Mélody and Steynor, Anna and Jack, Christopher and Chinowsky, Paul and Thomson, Madeleine and Baethgen, Walter and Dinku, Tufa and Senato, Asrat Yirgu and Phuong, Do Minh and Huq, Saleemul and Ndiaye, Ousmane}, title = {{Scaling Climate Services to Enable Effective Adaptation Action}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = aug, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Scaling_Climate_Services_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }