Climate Exchange

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ommunities

the main task for the web portal has been to collect, cate-

gorize and supply information of interest for the target

groups, such as short information and web links to other

websites where the actual information is published. This

includes information on climate change, climate change

impacts and tools for adaptation processes, as well as

information on the roles and responsibilities for the

different actors dealing with climate change adaptation

efforts in Sweden.

Since 2007, the web portal has been managed in

collaboration between national authorities, and the

number of participating authorities in the network

has now grown. The network includes: the Swedish

Environmental Protection Agency, the National Board

of Housing, Building and Planning, The Swedish Board

of Agriculture, Swedish Forest Agency, SMHI, SGI, the

Swedish National Heritage Board, the Swedish Energy

Agency, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, National

Food Agency, Geological Survey of Sweden and the

Swedish Mapping, Cadastre and Land Registration

Authority. The Swedish Association of Local Authorities

and Regions and the county councils throughout the

country are also included in the collaboration.

The authorities contribute in the network with their

expert knowledge and time. The portal is managed from

SMHI. Since 2009, a news feed has been addedwith climate

change adaptation news interesting Swedish stakeholders,

mostly concerning domestic activities and services. The

authorities’ network also has arranged a number of semi-

nars and workshops for Swedish stakeholders concerning

the ongoing national climate change adaptation activities

within authorities and research efforts.

appropriate for their needs. In this discussion the alternative of

using results from many climate model simulations (ensembles) is

an important topic for consideration. Results from ensembles might

facilitate estimates of changing climate conditions, including mean

conditions, variability and the probability of extremes that are better

suited for risk assessment, as they carry more information on alter-

native futures.

Nordic collaboration on climate services

During 2011 a framework for climate services was initiated within

NORDMET, a cooperation between the Nordic national meteoro-

logical services. The aim of NORDMET is to achieve better cost

efficiency by sharing resources in such areas as observation, infor-

mation management, production and education. The main objective

for a new group, the Nordic Framework for Climate Services, is to

boost the availability of climate information in the Nordic countries

by developing and sharing best practice in data handling, products

and communication.

The Swedish climate change adaptation web portal

The Swedish climate change adaptation web portal (www.klima-

tanpassning.se

) has been active since 2007. At that time it was an

outcome of a collaborative discussion among four national authori-

ties with operations in fields with inherent relevance to Swedish

climate change adaptation efforts. The participating network author-

ities were: the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning,

the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, SMHI, the Swedish

Rescue Department and SGI.

The primary user group for the portal has been the municipalities

and county administrative boards. In addition, the national authorities

themselves have benefited from the informal information exchange

and learning process within the web portal network. Nevertheless,

A climate expert communicating the Swedish annual mean temperature and annual mean precipitation to stakeholders

Image: SMHI