The European Climate Data Explorer - a new web portal providing interactive access to climate change information for Europe

The Copernicus Climate Change Service’s (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS) contains a wealth of information about the Earth's recent past, present and future climate. The CDS catalogue contains both general climate datasets, such as climate observations, seasonal forecasts, global and regional reanalyses and global and regional climate projections datasets, and in addition derived Climate Impact Indices (CII). CIIs are processed data which was developed to respond to specific sectoral needs. Most CII datasets were developed as part of the C3S Sectoral Information System (SIS) activities, which develops user-oriented products for various climate-sensitive sectors (e.g., water management, energy, biodiversity, human health and tourism).

The European Climate Data Explorer (ECDE) is a new web portal providing interactive access to selected climate variables and indices included in the CDS. It is hosted on the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT), a publicly accessible web portal managed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with the European Commission. The ECDE aims to facilitate access to a wide range of data on observed and projected climate change in Europe. Such data are relevant, among others, for developing and implementing national and subnational climate adaptation strategies and plans, including sectoral strategies.

The variables and indices currently included in the ECDE reflect user needs expressed through an EEA-led stakeholder consultation as well as data availability from C3S-led SIS contracts. The interactive access allows users to zoom in on maps in order to focus on regions of interest, show time series for specific countries and subnational regions (to NUTS level 3), and export images and data. The ECDE will be expanded further in response to user needs and increasing data availability in the CDS. This expansion will include additional sectoral indices as well as new data sources (e.g. from CMIP6).

The ECDE is complemented by the online EEA Report Changing climate hazards in Europe and a Technical Paper. These products provide further information on the underlying indices and datasets. The report also presents past and projected trends for key climate hazards across Europe.

The ECDE lowers the technical hurdles that limit access to CDS data for a large part of EEA’s target audience. Doing so, the ECDE supports the European Green Deal, including the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, and the EU Mission on Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation.