EfD researchers attended UNU-WIDER/AERC Climate Change Training
After pursuing an online course for three weeks, Dr. Zenebe Gebreegziabher and Abebe Damte from EfD Ethiopia, attended a five-days training on Climate Change Science and Modeling of Biophysical Impacts, arranged by UNU-WIDER and AERC at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
The online training ran from April 27th to May 18th, 2011 and incorporated two major topics: the sciences of climate change and biophysical impacts modeling. Top experts in climate change science contributed to the course material. Besides providing introduction and background to the online learning system, the first topic concentrated on ‘Climate Change Science and Modeling’ including what climate change means, evidence and skepticism of climate change, global climate change models (SRES, GCMs), output and reliability, downscaling, projections and how to use and interpret them.
The second topic was about modeling biophysical implications of climate change. Subjects covered in this topic included modeling of hydrology, flooding, and droughts, crop modeling, water resources modeling, and infrastructure modeling. Each subject under the various topics included a set of readings and power point presentation with voiceover from the experts. The topics also included 2-3 discussion questions as individual assignments, which are commented by group members. The discussion groups had 3-5 participants based on geographic location.
At the completion of the course a small final project was completed by each group addressing an important climate change issue in their respective regions based on what was taught in the course.
At the end of the online course, a face-to-face course was given covering the topic ‘Economics of Climate Change’. The course was held at the University of Cape Town from June 25-29, 2011.
When asked about what he thought of the course, Dr. Zenebe stated "As economists we were interested in the economics of climate change impact. It was interesting to know about the models underlying the economic analysis of climate change impacts and to what extent we can trust them."
"A particular thing I learned," continued Dr. Zenebe, "was about the GCM (Global Circulation Models) on which the climate forecasts are based and the uncertainties associated with these models."
Read more about the course.Ethiopia
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