K7. Linking climate change projections and adaptation with stakeholders

There is increasing evidence that human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are already changing climate at global to local scales and that more change is very likely due to high current and projected GHG emissions . This means that adaptation to climate change will be an increasing focus for decision-makers. However, climate change is only one of many concerns that decision-makers need to integrate. The past linear approach to climate impacts assessment where the analysis starts with climate change projections, thus needs to change to one where the decision-makers and their decisions are the starting point and where climate information comes into the decision-frame only in intermediate steps. Importantly, this emphasises the need for climate information to add value to the adaptation process and to thus be sensitive to the characteristics of the information needs of the decision-makers.  In turn this requires re-thinking of the modelling approaches used to represent future climates and to align these with user needs and the iterative nature of adaptation processes but at the same time to maintain scientific rigour. This session will explore state-of-the-art approaches to linking climate models with decision-makers so as to enhance adaptation outcomes.