Leading scientists from around the world are meeting in Brussels from 4 to 7 November to set the agenda for scientific research into regional climate change. This research is being conducted through the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX).

The conference is co-sponsored by the European Commission (EC), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

On Monday, 4 November, a high-level session and stakeholder dialogue will feature addresses by EC Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, and IPCC Working Group 1 Co-Chairs Thomas Stocker and Dahe Qin.

The conference follows the recent adoption by governments of the IPCC's assessment of the most up-to-date, peer-reviewed literature on climate science. The IPCC's report on "The Physical Science Basis" confirms that it is extremely likely (95-100% probability) that most of the global warming since 1950 has been due to human influence. However, scientists are less confident about the precise effects of climate change at the national and regional scales.

"To take effective action, decision-makers need a better understanding of how global climate change will affect the people and the environment of their country or region," said WMO Secretary- General Michel Jarraud. "The growing demand for user-oriented climate information services has turned research on regional impacts into a critical frontier in climate science."

"Scientists are collaborating through the CORDEX framework to improve the world-wide availability of science-based climate information for decision-makers at the regional level," said WCRP Director Ghassem Asrar. "This will allow them to determine just how temperatures, precipitation and weather patterns may change over the coming decades in, for example, southern Africa, Southeast Asia or the polar regions."