Øyvind Paasche, Head of Department at NORCE, is pleased with the development of the centre he leads. Climate Futures has many user partners, and increasingly, initiatives and inquiries are coming from them—not just from the researchers:
– The partners see the potential in using the knowledge available in Climate Futures. I hope we’ll see even more of that, said Paasche as he welcomed the partners.
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) was given a special welcome as a new partner in the centre.
Tryg has worked closely with SFI Climate Futures for five years and hosted this year’s partner gathering:
– The weather is becoming more variable. That’s a fundamental issue we must address—not just in insurance, but across all industries. It’s been a great journey. We’ve learned a lot, said Karl Ove Aarbu from Tryg at the opening of the meeting.
Keynotes and Professional Insights
The general meeting featured a range of professional presentations, including longer keynotes and quick research stories.
Geir Drage Berentsen presented NHH’s work on damage forecasting and how they’ve investigated whether historical weather data from Bergen and Oslo can help predict future weather-related damages.
Andreas Brachel from GARD gave insights into how maritime insurance companies deal with climate risk and how they manage insurance for the shipping industry’s testing of new green technologies.
Under the theme “Extremes: adaptation and forecasting,” Mads Gran Brandbu from the County Governor of Østfold, Oslo, Akershus, and Buskerud shared insights into collaboration among public actors and how early river flow warnings can improve municipal preparedness. Under the same theme, Ingrid Hjort from BI presented the Expert Committee on Climate Adaptation and their work to quantify the socioeconomic consequences of climate change in Norway.
Marine heatwaves can affect marine wildlife, kelp forests, coral reefs, and lead to algal blooms. Helene Langehaug from the Nansen Center is researching the forecasting of these heatwaves to enable measures that limit their impact.
Karl Ove Aarbu from Tryg spoke about how insurance companies must deal with climate change, increasing damage levels, greater variability, and rising costs. Increasing the number of days extreme weather can be forecasted will be crucial for damage prevention.
Quick Research Stories
Climate Futures consists of 36 partners. Much of the work takes place in various expert groups, called “nodes.” These are: Sustainable Food Production – Ocean, Sustainable Food Production – Land, Renewable Energy, Smart Shipping, and Resilient Societies.
This year’s quick research stories included:
Seasonality in renewable portfolios: Balancing solar, wind, and demand
(Sondre Nedreås Hølleland, NHH)Future changes in precipitation variability and implications for the hydropower sector
(Filip Selstad and Lea Svendsen, UiB)Long-term production planning for Norwegian apple trees
(Nora Røhnebæk Aasen, NR)Predicting hourly streamflow using AI
(Kamilla Wergeland, Småkraft, and Ole Wulff, NORCE)Fortune and misfortune: How likely was Hans, and might it just as easily have happened during the snow-melting season?
(Emilé Sauvat, Sigrid Passano Hellan, NORCE)Modeling nation-level electricity demand based on meteorological data for European countries
(Inger Kristin Nesbø Gjøsæter, UiB)The summer 2024 marine heatwave and salmon lice outbreak in northern Norway
(Silvana Gonzalez, Institute of Marine Research)Machine learning the weather
(Sigrid Passano Hellan, NORCE)Predicting the risk of large biofouling exposure to vessels
(Gabriel Fuentes, NHH)Weather impact on fuel consumption of Offshore Support Vessels
(Martin Kleppe, NHH)
