Advancing climate services in South Asia

Many communities in South Asia are highly exposed and vulnerable to weather and climate hazards, and climate services play an important role in managing present and future climate risks. Here we take stock of ongoing climate service activities under the Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) Met Office Partnership programme. ARRCC aims to strengthen climate resilience in South Asia through co-producing weather and climate services, building institutional capacities, and enhancing coordination across the region and in focal countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. We identify what is working well and challenges that remain in the provision and uptake of climate services, focusing on examples of applying seasonal forecasts, sea-level rise projections, and extreme rainfall information for hydropower decisions. We demonstrate the value of building equitable and sustainable partnerships, enhancing knowledge sharing, strengthening evaluation, and approaches that combine model information within a decision-centred framework. Based on experiences in ARRCC, we find that climate information alone is often insufficient to meet decision-maker needs, and discuss the role for new climate impact services that integrate climate information with knowledge and tools on climate impacts and vulnerabilities.