We welcome the submission of papers covering topics such as:
• Mechanisms and structures for establishing and maintaining sustainable climate services and partnerships between researchers, providers, and translators, and managing expectations of users
• Communicating capabilities and limitations of climate information (including trust, usability, and uncertainty)
• Challenges and issues arising in the provision of information about high-impact climate extremes
• Interaction with major research initiatives such as, for European downscaling, Euro-CORDEX, Med-CORDEX and VALUE and, with respect to earth observations and climate predictions and projections, the COPERNICUS programme
• Examples of information being used to support decision or policy making
• The interaction between climate and weather services
We also welcome submissions which are reflecting on:
• The need for information on different timeframes and spatial scales
• The climate service requirements emerging from different types of users, providers, and intermediaries
• Comparisons of different approaches to climate services being taken in different countries
• How the different funding and access models (e.g., publicly-funded, commercial services) lead to different typologies of services
As weather and climate hazards intensify due to anthropogenic climate change, the demand for authoritative, science-based, decision-relevant information on future climate risks has never been greater. National Climate Scenarios have emerged in many countries as an central pathway for translating advances in physical climate science into usable information on future weather and climate risks for adaptation planning, risk management, and policy.
Here, we will take a conceptual and forward-looking perspective on the role and design of National Climate Scenarios in assessing future weather and climate hazards. Drawing on a comparative review of National Climate Scenarios from ten countries, I outline current practices at the science–policy interface and discuss how these national climate services navigate the tension between scientific credibility, uncertainty, and societal relevance. While the scenario products increasingly incorporate sophisticated climate model information, gaps remain between what users request (particularly regarding extremes and spatial detail) and what the climate science community can robustly deliver.
I highlight four challenges that are highly relevant for the future development of National Climate Scenarios: (i) the co-development of credible and usable products with diverse user communities; (ii) the representation and communication of uncertainty; (iii) the integration of multiple lines of evidence across models, scales, and methods; and (iv) the treatment of extreme events and extreme climate outcomes (low likelihood, high impact). Addressing these challenges requires both continued disciplinary advances in physical climate science, including the modelling and attribution of (unprecedented or compound) weather and climate extremes as well as stronger interdisciplinary collaboration with social sciences, impact modelling, and climate services research.
On a connected European continent, there is a clear opportunity to build a European network connecting the National Climate Scenario-producers, scientists and users, to strengthen scientific excellence, improve efficiency and enhance usability of climate information particularly at transnational levels. This contribution aims to set the stage for a discussion on what harmonised, but nation-specific, Climate Scenarios might look like.
How to cite: van der Wiel, K.: Bridging climate science and adaptation: a perspective on the construction of National Climate Scenarios, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-172, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-172, 2026.
The latest generation of Swiss climate scenarios “Climate CH2025” were published in November 2025. The scenarios were developed by the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, ETH Zurich, and Center for Climate Systems Modelling (C2SM), with contributions from the University of Bern and the University of Lausanne, and implemented under the umbrella of the National Centre for Climate Services (NCCS).
The aim of the Climate CH2025 project was to develop, update and provide the physical basis of climate change in Switzerland. The information links the past development from observations with expected changes from climate scenarios and focuses on changes in climate extremes. The impacts can be summarized in clear key messages:
- Climate change is particularly evident in Switzerland
- Extreme heat is becoming more frequent and more intense
- Soils in Switzerland are drying out increasingly in summer
- Heavy precipitation is becoming more frequent and more intense
- Precipitation is falling more often as rain instead of snow
- Many effects of climate change can be avoided or reduced through climate mitigation
A key objective of the project was to provide climate information that is both scientifically robust and actionable for a wide range of stakeholders. To achieve this, Climate CH2025 emphasized clear, accessible, and consistent communication of local and regional climate changes in Switzerland. Building on previous scenario generations, Climate CH2025 expands its range of outputs to better address the needs of stakeholders. The resulting product portfolio is designed to meet the diverse needs of different user groups. It includes a vast variety of products consisting of scientific reports, daily datasets, a webatlas, brochures, videos, and more. Each of these products was specifically tailored and communicated to a user group.
This presentation reflects on challenges and lessons learned throughout the Climate CH2025 process. These include the value of user feedback, the advantages of a standardized product design, and the importance of targeted communication.
How to cite: Muelchi, R. and the Climate CH2025 Consortium: Challenges and lessons learned from the development of Swiss climate scenarios, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-506, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-506, 2026.
In late October 2025, the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services (NCCS) launched a new national climate assessment report for Norway (Dyrrdal et al., 2025), commissioned by the Norwegian Environment Agency. Alongside the report, we released a dataset featuring national daily climate and hydrological projections, including a comprehensive set of climate indicators. These indicators reflect projected changes relative to the current normal period (1991–2020), for both the mid-century (2041–2070) and end-of-century (2071–2100) periods.
The national projections are based on three emission scenarios: RCP2.6 (low), RCP4.5 (medium) and SSP3-7.0 (high). Due to the unavailability of downscaled ensembles of SSP-scenarios representing low and medium emissions from EURO-CORDEX, these are not included. For climate adaptation, the Norwegian government recommends basing assessments on a high emission scenario. Accordingly, the report places particular emphasis on results from the high emission scenario.
We present key findings from the report, including analyses of past and current climate conditions, hydrological normals, and projected future changes in climate, sea level, hydrology, and effects on natural hazards. Under the high emission scenario, the mean projected temperature increase for mainland Norway is 3.4 °C (2071–2100 relative to 1991–2020). Precipitation is projected to increase by 11 %, and runoff by 10 %.
Compared to the previous national climate assessment report (Hanssen-Bauer et al., 2015), the current ensemble displays a smaller projected temperature increase. This is due to both the lower radiative forcing in SSP3-7.0 compared to RCP8.5, and a shorter period between the reference and the end-of-century period. While the projected precipitation increase is also more moderate, the increase in runoff exceeds that of the previous report.
Additionally, we will give a brief overview of data distribution, outreach, and future work related to this updated national climate knowledge base. Specifically, we will highlight ongoing efforts to tailor climate information for Norwegian municipalities, emphasising co-development and user involvement throughout the process.
How to cite: Hygen, H. O., Dyrrdal, A. V., Nilsen, I. B., Mayer, S., and Simpson, M.: New national projections and climate assessment report for Norway, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-306, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-306, 2026.
In parallel with overal effort in many European countries there were activities to construct the projections of climate changes in the Czech Republic in the past, especially with respect to overal assessment of potential impacts as well as for planning of adaptation measures to prevent the damages especially from extreme events. It was mostly done within both quasi-periodic overal projects, usually in connection to national reports, and different, rather smaller not so much connected projects for individual sectors. After certain gap the Ministry of Environment came with the program on „Environment for Life“ with a set of topics on the status of environment in the Czech Republic, one of them with the call for climate change and its impacts, especially in connection to hydrology, i.e. the isue of etreme events like droughts and floodings. From this call, the project PERUN coordinated by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute has come out, which really aimed to provide comprehensive suite of climate scenarios targetted to the Czech Republic.
The aim of the project is to create a „research centre“, based on cooperation of most of the relevant institutes and organisations that are focusing on research in the field of climate change in a long term perspective. It concerns an analysis of the ongoing and prediction of future change, including identification of risks for the environment and society. The output will be the most up-to-date data necessary for the preparation and updating of strategic documents as well as for decision-making processes not only within area of climate change adaptation, but also for evaluation of mitigation measures in the process of their preparation and implementation. The output of the particular objectives described in the project will be a publicly accessible and comprehensive research report supplemented by open databases, certified methodologies and, of course, scientific publications.
The scenarios are based on downscaling of selected model (CNRM) from CMIP6 suite using regional climate model ALADIN in convection permitting mode with very high resolution, accompanied with overal analysis of the full CMIP6 ensemble and EuroCORDEX CMIP5 downscaling ensemble to assess the potential effects of other climate sensitivities and uncertainties.
How to cite: Halenka, T., Tolasz, R., and Valík, A.: Toward the national climate scenario in the Czech Republic - Project PERUN, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-744, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-744, 2026.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) publishes Arctic Climate Change Updates on a biennial basis, the previous being 2024 and a new report due in 2026. AMAP is a scientific working group under the Arctic Council, and its climate update reports provide up-to-date information and knowledge of relevance. This is particularly important for the Arctic where the warming is extremely rapid and changes are coming fast. The Arctic and the polar regions have important roles for both the Earth’s climate as well as societies across the world, being the most important region with ice and a frozen state. For instance, melting ice caps on Greenland affects the global sea level and threatens to submerge coastal cities. The reports include policy-relevant and society-relevant material, and are written partly with policy-makers in mind, and they may be easier to digest than e.g. the assessment reports from the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). These reports will also be an important contribution to monitoring the state of the climate, since the next IPCC assessment report will not have a separate chapter on the polar regions. The AMAP updates, however, may serve as a contribution to the state of the Arctic. These reports will also be relevant for the Arctic Council's nature working groups with the Assessment of Societal Implications of Climate Change in the Arctic (SICCA) and the Conservation of the Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF). While some aspects can be presented with minor uncertainty, such as past evolutions and the current state, others, such as the exact thresholds for tipping points, are clouded with unknowns. The chapters in the reports touch upon different topics with expertise from different disciplines, and one challenge is to communicate science across sectors with different norms for dealing with knowledge and information.
How to cite: Benestad, R., Mård, J., Brigham-Grette, J., Kvalvåg, M. M., and Pawlak, J.: AMAP’s Arctic Climate Change Update reports, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-458, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-458, 2026.
Established in late 2015, the Swiss National Centre for Climate Services (NCCS) has grown into the Swiss Confederation’s central coordination network tasked with bundling and co-developing actionable climate services for the environment, economy and society. The NCCS operates as a virtual centre, bringing together six federal offices and two federal research institutions. This structure has enabled the Network to serve as a knowledge broker at the interface between research and practice, and to support climate-related decision-making.
Together with the Centre’s partner organizations, NCCS members have worked on priority themes relating to climate change: from climate scenarios and Switzerland’s water resources to human and animal health and impacts on forest and agricultural ecosystems – providing robust scientific foundations for adaptation planning. The flagship programme NCCS‑Impacts has delivered integrated assessments of cross‑sectoral climate impacts in Switzerland to inform long‑term resilience strategies. Annual NCCS forums, and the new format Climate Forum Switzerland, have further strengthened co‑development by gathering climate‑service producers and users to exchange needs, methodologies, and best practices across disciplines, administrative levels, the private sector and civil society. NCCS’ web portal www.nccs.ch has been conceptualized, set up and maintained in a collaborative effort. It is the network’s hub for climate services, offering key climate information, specific impacts and tools.
Through its highly engaged and committed members and partners, the NCCS network has become a cornerstone of Switzerland’s climate services and adaptation landscape. By coordinating interdisciplinary expertise, fostering dialogue, and providing accessible decision‑support, it has significantly enhanced Switzerland’s capacity to anticipate and manage climate‑related risks and opportunities and to strengthen its resilience. This presentation will reflect on the NCCS’s first decade as well as discuss its strategies, activities, highlights and challenges.
How to cite: Hama, A. M., Croci-Maspoli, M., Fischer, A., and Zubler, E.: From Insight to Impact: A Decade of the Swiss National Centre for Climate Services, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-668, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-668, 2026.
Decision-making around climate adaptation is a complex challenge for climate-sensitive organizations, involving a wide range of considerations. Climate service prototype efforts play an essential role in supporting these decisions by creating relevant climate information, and communicating it in user-friendly ways. However, the impact of such efforts depends on whether prototypes effectively support decision-making. Co-production with sector experts or end-users is a good approach to incorporate users’ needs. But an important question is whether this co-produced knowledge is also useful for a broader pool of potential users across regions or sectors, which has been termed ‘horizontal upscaling’. There is, however, little empirical research addressing this question. Therefore, this study aims to examine the extent to which co-produced climate information from the ASPECT project is also useful and usable for meeting the decision needs of other similar potential users. The research addresses the following questions:
- How understandable is the co-produced climate information for other potential users?
- How do they evaluate the usefulness and quality of the climate information?
- How useful would the climate information be in supporting their adaptation decision-making process?
- How do they feel that the climate information could be improved?
To answer these questions, a survey was conducted in December 2025. The respondents are practitioners from the pension, agriculture, governance, and humanitarian sectors, with around 33 respondents per sector. The survey tested early-stage climate service prototypes, co-produced with ASPECT users and delivered in the form of a storyboard, a website, a bulletin, and a presentation. Results show that the understandability of co-produced climate information needs to be further improved for use by a broader range of users. Respondents agreed that this information could support their decision-making in several ways.
How to cite: Geng, K., Dessai, S., Taylor, A., Clacher, I., Garry, F., Terrado Casanovas, M., Delgado Torres, C., Torralba, V., Calderaro, C., and Taddeo, S.: Scaling up co-produced climate information to meet the needs of other potential users, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-716, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-716, 2026.
As climate-related risks intensify across Europe, there is growing demand for decision-relevant information among climate-sensitive organisations. This paper presents findings from a large-scale survey of 1,864 professionals working across sectors, regions, and operational scales in Europe, aimed at assessing how organisations perceive climate risks, use weather and/or climate information, and identify unmet information needs. Results show widespread concern about climate and economic risks, with operational impacts commonly attributed to extreme heat and heavy rainfall. While 77% of respondents actively use weather and/or climate information (primarily for short-term planning), the uptake of long-term climate information, such as climate projections and decadal predictions, remains low. Organisations access different types of climate information from diverse sources. Ordered logit models show that exposure to extreme events is positively associated with greater climate concern and a higher likelihood of engaging in climate risk management. Key drivers of information use include risk to human safety, prior climate-related experience, and regulatory obligations. Among current users, satisfaction with the quality of weather and climate information is high, though affordability, understandability, accessibility, usability, and tailoring remain areas for improvement. Non-users also expressed strong interest in future use, especially regarding high-impact events. These findings underscore the need for weather and climate information services that are not only scientifically robust but also accessible, understandable, and aligned with users’ operational realities and planning horizons. The study highlights persistent barriers to uptake and calls for greater investment in user engagement, training, and tailored service design to enhance climate resilience across sectors in Europe.
How to cite: Dessai, S., Geng, K., Grainger, S., Taylor, A., Kržič, A., Davidović, U., Saklani, S., Gonzalez Romero, C., Garry, F., Mysiak, J., and Martins, H.: Societal use of seasonal to decadal prediction information: Insights from a large-scale survey of organization in Europe, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-709, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-709, 2026.
Climate service development invariably begins with the question of user needs: how to identify, understand, and respond to them. Conventional needs assessments tend to surface discrete gaps in data, information, or technology, pushing development toward data-driven solutions. While improvements in data quality and quantity are necessary, research has consistently shown that they cannot alone guarantee uptake. A crucial gap persists whereby conventional approaches reveal what information is needed, but not the context in which those needs exist, how knowledge flows between actors, what constrains its use, or how decisions are actually made. This overemphasis on information gaps risks producing climate services that are technically sound but poorly aligned with local realities.
We address this by reframing climate service needs through a knowledge management and decision-making lens to obtain a more nuanced understanding of needs and the landscape of climate service provision in Georgia (Alazani River Basin). This research was carried out as part of the EU Horizon 2020 I-CISK (Innovating Climate Services through Integrating Scientific and local Knowledge) project, which aimed at co-creating pre-operational climate services with a multisectoral stakeholder group. Our approach involved mapping key actors forming a viable climate service value chain, and through key informant interviews and participatory approaches such as decision timelines, examining how knowledge is created, shared, and managed across providers, purveyors, and end users, and how decision-making processes draw on local and scientific knowledge.
Our findings reveal dynamics a conventional needs assessment would unlikely surface. Climate services remain nascent in Georgia, with a fragmented institutional landscape; however, opportunities for development exist. Providers and purveyors recognise the importance of climate information and the complementarity of their roles and mandates, yet inter-institutional knowledge exchange is limited and dependent on external interventions such as donor-funded projects, creating a structural bottleneck to sustained knowledge integration. End users, particularly farmers, demonstrate strong awareness of climate change impacts through observed shifts in seasonal patterns and farming conditions. They rely primarily on their local knowledge and social networks, supplemented by smartphone-based forecasts for short-term tactical decisions. Engagement with longer-term climate information remains limited due to concerns around credibility, salience, and legitimacy.
Taken together, these findings provide a more complete picture of the climate service provision landscape in Georgia, revealing not just what information is missing, but surfacing deeper issues around knowledge integration, institutional collaboration, and the usefulness of scientific information - areas that co-creation processes are well placed to address.
How to cite: Rastogi, S. and Werner, M.: Beyond information gaps: reframing climate service needs through a knowledge management and decision-making perspective in Eastern Georgia, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-732, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-732, 2026.
Recent years have been marked by increasingly frequent and intense extreme events, including severe convective storms and heavy precipitation, often leading to significant impacts such as flooding and landslides. Climate change is expected to further amplify these trends, thereby increasing socio-economic risks and placing growing demands on local authorities and risk managers. In this context, effective warning systems are essential to support timely preparedness and informed decision-making. However, the mere availability of advanced forecasts does not necessarily translate into effective action. To be actionable, warnings must be aligned with the specific responsibilities, capacities, and decision-making processes of their users.
Understanding these user-specific requirements is therefore essential for improving the design and implementation of warning systems. In the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, natural hazard consultants play a central role in advising municipal authorities on hazard assessment and management, both in preparedness phases and during ongoing events. Their tasks include monitoring evolving weather conditions, assessing potential impacts, and supporting both operational and strategic decisions. Based on interviews with these consultants, this study investigates their experiences with and perceptions of existing forecasts and warning products in practice. We examine which types of information are most relevant for decision-making and how forecast uncertainty influences their actions. In addition, we explore user requirements for future warning systems, with particular focus on spatial and temporal scales, the communication of uncertainty, and the added value of impact-based information to better support local risk management.
By focusing on the needs and experiences of natural hazard consultants, this work provides insights into the development of more user-centred and operationally relevant warning systems, ultimately supporting more effective decision-making in high-impact weather situations.
How to cite: Zukanovic, F., Martius, O., Zischg, A. P., Espejo, G., and Mosimann, M.: Designing User-Centred Warning Systems: Insights from Natural Hazard Consultants in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-666, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-666, 2026.
The development of new generations of climate projections is a core part of climate science. But while new datasets are always welcome, transitioning from one dataset to another raises many questions amongst the users of climate service: Is the new dataset different? Is it better? And how do we know? Many European climate services are currently facing these questions as the next generation of Euro-CORDEX data nears publication and uptake into climate services. Here we demonstrate a quantitative approach for assessing the differences between different generations of climate projections in a way that is relevant to the users of a climate service. We build our analysis on the use of global warming levels, an approach that can correct for the particularly problematic difference between the RCP and SSP emissions-scenarios used in the two ensembles. We provide a practical illustration of the method using approximately 40 annual and seasonal bias-adjusted indicators of climate change from Klimaatlas, the Danish Climate Atlas, calculated for 98 Danish municipalities in a standardised manner for both CORDEX5 and CORDEX6. We apply a Bayesian hierarchical testing framework to detect changes in both the response of an indicator and the associated uncertainty. We highlight cases where CORDEX6 reduces uncertainty, but also where it is indistinguishable from CORDEX5. Finally, we discuss how each of these cases can be handled in a climate service, and the way that the two ensembles will be merged in a future release of Klimaatlas to produce a climate service using both datasets to their fullest extent.
How to cite: Payne, M. R.: Is newer better? How can we tell if CORDEX6 improves our understanding of regional climate change?, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-480, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-480, 2026.
User enquiries are an important part of operational climate services at The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway). Requests are received through email and telephone, and often concern past weather and climate conditions in connection with media requests, insurance claims, or general documentation needs. Many of these enquiries require manual retrieval of data, calculation of statistics, and identification of relevant datasets, webpages, or standard response formulations, making the work both time-consuming and resource-intensive.
To support this work, MET Norway is exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of a chatbot designed to assist with routine enquiries. In the first phase, the focus has been on insurance-related cases, where users need documentation of past weather events associated with damage to property, for example wind damage.
The chatbot is being developed by a team of students, while domain experts at MET Norway contribute by defining operational needs, identifying relevant use cases, and testing prototypes throughout the development process. This collaboration helps ensure that the tool is grounded in real workflows and addresses practical needs within climate services.
The aim of the project is to assess whether an AI-based assistant can improve efficiency and support service quality by helping staff retrieve relevant information, guide users to the right data sources, and draft responses to recurring enquiries. At the same time, the project provides an opportunity to identify important limitations and clarify where human expertise remains essential.
The study represents a practical case of how AI can be introduced into operational climate services. If the approach proves effective, the service could later be extended to other types of enquiries and, in the longer term, potentially developed into an external service for users.
How to cite: Gangstø, R., Tajet, H. T. T., Hygen, H. O. K., and Melchior, D.: Use of AI to support climate services at MET Norway, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-615, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-615, 2026.
National climate scenarios play a key role in translating global and regional climate projections into actionable information for impact assessment and policy-making. Within the framework of the CORDEX.be II project, a new generation of climate scenarios for Belgium is currently being developed, based on convection-permitting regional climate model simulations at kilometer scale. The ensemble combines three models - ALARO, MAR, and COSMO-CLM - and covers a reference period as well as two future 20-year time slices corresponding to global warming levels of +2°C and +3°C.
Particular attention is given to the representation of climate extremes, such as heatwaves and intense precipitation, through the careful selection of boundary conditions from CMIP6 global climate models that demonstrate strong performance in simulating these phenomena. The credibility of the regional simulations is assessed through their ability to reproduce key features of the present-day climate. Moreover, the climate-change signals are considered against the range of the coarser-scale EURO-CORDEX projections over Belgium.
A central component of this work is the close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the development process. End users from multiple sectors are actively involved in the scenario choice and the co-design of climate indicators, ensuring their relevance for practical applications, and shaping the format and usability of the final products. The climate indicators and bias-corrected time series will provide a robust basis for assessing climate impacts across sectors, including agriculture, health, and water management, and for supporting adaptation planning to future climate extremes in Belgium. The climate indicators will be provided to the stakeholders as well as through an online portal.
How to cite: Van Schaeybroeck, B., Vandelanotte, K., Vanderkelen, I., Ghilain, N., Serras, F., van Lipzig, N., Brajkovic, J., Fettweis, X., Caluwaerts, S., Top, S., Lauwaet, D., Van de Vyver, H., and Termonia, P.: Convection-permitting regional climate simulations to support the national climate scenarios for Belgium, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-146, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-146, 2026.
Tea is an important global commodity, with major growing regions across Asia, Africa and South America, alongside emerging small‑scale and artisanal production in the UK and Europe. Within all of these contexts, both the quality and quantity of tea production are highly sensitive to climate variability and change, operating across weather, seasonal and longer‑term timescales, with wide‑ranging implications for livelihoods, economies and food systems. For climate information to be genuinely actionable, it must be closely aligned with the needs and decision‑making contexts of those who will ultimately use it. Meaningful user engagement is therefore central to the development of effective climate services. Within the Tea‑CUP (Co-developing Useful Predictions) activity, one key mechanism for achieving this has been the development of agricultural decision‑making calendars with tea growers. These calendars act as structured engagement tools that support dialogue, knowledge exchange and trust‑building between scientists, growers and wider supply‑chain stakeholders. The calendars capture growers’ decision‑making processes across varying timescales, explicitly linking routine management activities with key climate hazards, associated risks and adaptation measures that are either already in place or under consideration. This approach has been trialled with UK tea growers and most recently collaboration has begun with stakeholders in China. Crucially, working together to build the calendars not only enables mutual learning but also ensures that discussions are shaped by growers' own lived experience. Tea-CUP adopts a co-production approach that places sustained engagement and decision making at its core, illustrating how inclusive engagement and international collaboration can help translate climate science into practical, user centred services for both established and emerging tea growing regions.
How to cite: New, S., Aldous, J., Khalaf, N., Williams, M., and Golding, N.: Cultivating Climate Services: User Engagement and Governance Insights from the Tea Sector in the UK and China, EMS Annual Meeting 2026, Utrecht, Netherlands, 6–11 Sep 2026, EMS2026-385, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2026-385, 2026.
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