B-EPICC-RD2

The overarching goal of this project is to strengthen resilience against disruptive weather phenomena and climate change impacts at regional, national and local levels in five partner countries: Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Tanzania. This project is an opportunity for the partner countries to reduce the gap between climate research and its application in policy, business and societal decisions, particularly regarding agriculture, biodiversity, hydrology and water resources, as well as migration. Consequently, the project aims to identify, on a collaborative basis how sound climate models and related tools can be tailored to national needs. Core questions the project tackles include: How can climate scenarios and seasonal prediction models be calibrated and put in to use for agricultural management? How can migration-climate hotspot maps support strategies to reduce vulnerability to climate stressors? Etc. The project encompasses six modules (Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer/Hydrology and Water Resources/Migration/Climate/Agriculture/Forests and Biodiversity) to be developed according to preferences and top priorities of partner countries. In this sense, B-EPICC is adaptive to needs and capacities of local partners.

PIK's RD2 will focus on the project parts (1) Hydrology and Water Resources and (2) Agriculture. (1) This module continues to i) analyze the consequences of climate change for the nexus water-food-energy (WFE), ii) analyze the consequences and adaptation possibilities due to land-use changes, and iii) analyze hydro-climatic extremes such as floods and droughts in Peru. The analysis of the consequences of climate change for the WFE is also extended to new target countries, Brazil and Ethiopia. Moreover, this module continues to perform the capacity building through training courses or exchange of experts and cooperation in the dissemination of the co-produced results together with local partners. The agricultural assessments (module 2) of EPICC will be extended to the newly added target country Ethiopia. In collaboration with national actors and experts, B-EPICC will adapt to meet the local needs and provide quantitative information and weather and climate related risks to crop yields. In this project phase, B-EPICC will also go a step beyond the yield information and assess farmer’s vulnerability to climate change and weather extremes. By identifying particularly vulnerable groups or regions B-EPICC supports more tailored and prioritized adaptation planning.