Don't say uncertainty: preliminary best practices and emerging themes for uncertainty quantification and communication in climate services from the Climateurope2 project.

A presentation of emerging themes and lessons learnt from examples of best practice in uncertainty quantification and communication relevant to climate services.  Drawn from existing literature and reports, and from a community engagement workshop.

• Consider the climate risks that are of most concern to the audience. 
• Use language the audience is familiar with (don’t say uncertainty).
• The precision of uncertainty information should be relevant to the situation.
• Understand existing narratives about climate uncertainty.
• Use communication about uncertainty to build trust.
• Be aware of deep uncertainty.

Standardised approaches to uncertainty communication should consider not only the climate science component, but also the complexities regarding socio-economic vulnerability.

Climateurope2, is a Horizon Europe project with a consortium of 33 parties from 13 countries that includes intergovernmental institutions such as the World Meteorological Organisation, social sciences, humanities and STEM expertise, assurance providers, SMEs, and standardisation bodies. Together we are building a community of practice for the standardisation and support of climate services.