National climate change assessments

June 2013

February 2013

Participants from Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Objectives

  • Facilitate the sharing of:
    • Experiences, lessons learned and challenges associated with the development and undertaking of a national climate change assessment (what did and did not work and how these lessons are informing subsequent assessments).
    • Perspectives on the purpose(s) of national assessments and how purpose has informed structures and approaches used to undertake these assessment.
    • Experiences of how previous assessments have been used and by whom, including evidence of the impacts of these assessments in terms of the intended purpose, and the resulting lessons learned in terms of delivering the assessment to the intended users.
    • Processes used to address identified evidence gaps highlighted in an assessment.
  • Support the development of a community of those responsible for delivery of national assessments interested in enhancing the quality and saliency of those assessments

Outcomes

  • Participants will have an opportunity to share and seek clarification on approaches, issues, challenges and lessons learned.
  • Participants will have an understanding of the rationale behind directions being considered by those responsible for delivery of national climate change assessments.
  • An engaged and informed community interested in the development and delivery of national climate change assessments and consideration of the need for continued engagement and the scope and nature of that engagement.

Presentations:

Workshop 6 to 7 February 2013

Producing the assessments

  • What has been or is to be produced and how was this decided?
  • The role of purpose in informing structure and approach
  • Who are the providers of the assessment? (responsibilities and governance)
  • What are the roles of important players? (e.g. policy community, private sector, third sector, academic community, political community and different levels of government)
  • Who are the intended end-users – how and for what purpose have they been engaged in producing the assessment?
  • Discussion on perspectives and lessons learned in producing the assessment.
  • Discussion on perspectives, lessons learned and challenges associated with methodological considerations, including approach, sources of information and technical communications.
  • Discussion on understanding the perspectives of those producing the assessment, and lessons learned and challenges.
    • Scope of those involved and relative roles of users (lessons learned and challenges) – who and how they have been engaged in the assessment and to what ends.

Using the assessments

  • Who are the intended (and unintended) users?
  • Roles of users in delivering the assessment.
  • What has worked, not worked and lessons learned in using the assessment:
    • enhancing the credibility, legitimacy and saliency
    • dealing with expectations of the purpose
    • delivery
    • enhancing the impacts
    • collecting evidence and evaluating the use – lessons learned and/or challenges.
  • Discussion to better understand enhancing the impacts and benefits of the assessment:
    • the role of impacts and benefits in informing future assessments
    • what is a ‘successful’ assessment.
  • Discussion highlighting the processes and challenges in identifying and addressing evidence gaps, and how to improve the knowledge of risks and opportunities – required to inform subsequent assessments and processes.
  • Discussion of next steps:
    • report on this meeting
    • future of such an initiative – consideration of options related to nature, scope and timing of such dialogues.