An Introductory Seminar
co-hosted by NERC & the Royal Society GER Committee
The Royal Society
London
15 October 2002
Workshop Objectives
- Promote the GECAFS project within the UK policy-making community
- Attract collaboration on agenda-setting from appropriate agencies
- Receive feed-back from a policy view-point on GECAFS research, management and coordination plans
Agenda
(Detailed timings and breaks have been deleted for this web report version)
Chair: Professor Pat Nuttall, Director, NERC-Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
GECAFS framework and science agenda, Professor Peter Gregory, GECAFS Chair, The University of Reading
GECAFS in the context of food systems research - Professor Ken Green, UMIST & IHDP-Industrial Transformations Project
GECAFS in relation to policy formulation - Professor Paul Ekins, Policy Studies Institute
GECAFS implementation and management - John Ingram, GECAFS Executive Officer, NERC-CEH
Chair: Professor Peter Liss, Vice-Chair, Royal Society Global Environmental
Research Committee
Discussion
Main Discussion Points
The approach of stressing “systems” was welcomed, as was the regional (sub-continental) level of project implementation. These aspects, and the interdisciplinary nature of GECAFS, was well illustrated by the Indo-Gangetic Plain example.
There was recognition that GECAFS will help develop the means to analyse the relative importance of social, economic and environmental drivers for given regions. Research on building regional-level scenarios which include a range of GEC factors (not just climate-related) and vulnerability indices is particularly valuable. There is a need to develop a GECAFS approach in Southern Africa.