El Niño 2015 conference report

Since early 2015, experts have monitored the development of one of the largest El Niño events of the last 50 years, and notably, the largest since the 1997-98 El Niño that shocked global food, water, health, energy and disaster-response systems and erased years of development gains. The current El Niño, which peaked at the end of 2015, offered a unique opportunity for governments, scientists, economists, humanitarian agencies, development professionals and the media to share perspectives on the transformation of climate forecasts to climate services in the past two decades. It allowed the expert community to focus attention on framing next steps in climate-services research, which are critical for achieving the sustainable development goals. Climate doesn’t act in isolation. We need to understand the interaction climate has with socioeconomic and ecological systems in order to address its negative impacts, as well as take advantage of times when climate conditions are favorable.

Key objectives of the El Niño 2015 Conference:
• Provide an overview of the 2015 El Niño and its potential impacts
• Examine the progress over last 20 years in international, national and regional climate services, with a focus on El Niño
• Foster a dialog between high-level scientific experts and development practitioners on next steps for the research and development
• Explore the connection between the current El Niño and Global Change