OSPAR's new Climate Change Expert Group
The first meeting of the newly created Climate Change Expert Group, led by the United Kingdom, took place online on Monday, 12 July 2021.
The role of the CCEG is to deliver a thematic assessment on climate change within the process of OSPAR’s next holistic assessment of the health of the North-East Atlantic, the Quality Status Report 2023. This assessment will provide information on climate change in the OSPAR Maritime Area and will focus more specifically on trends in physicochemical climate change parameters, on climate change impacts on biota, ecosystems, and human activities, and on mitigation and adaptation measures.
During this first meeting, the expert group agreed on several important first steps, notably:
- On the Terms of Reference that define its scope of work and objectives,
- On the structure of the Climate Change Thematic Assessment that will be delivered as part of the QSR 2023 process,
- On the set-up of three working groups, each working on a specific dimension of the Climate Change Thematic Assessment.
Given the vast amount of time and efforts necessary to deliver this ambitious assessment in a timely manner, the CCEG noted that extra resources would probably be welcomed and invited other OSPAR Contracting Parties to nominate experts.