Understanding the challenges and implications of El Niño

Every few years, the El Niño weather phenomenon triggers extreme weather events in many regions of the world, leading to crop failures, food crises and extreme weather events or exacerbating existing crises. This year, El Niño is expected to be particularly severe. In this webinar, we will examine the challenges posed by El Niño from various context-specific perspectives and discuss possible measures to deal with these challenges as effectively as possible.

Objectives:

The webinar will convey a general understanding of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and of the implications of the current forecasts of a strong El Niño on the global climate (expected effects on temperature and rainfall), for different seasons (Summer / Winter). Participants will understand the typical impacts (e.g. on the risk of flash floods, on agricultural productivity, on landscape fire and air pollution risks) and their uncertainties. They will learn how to follow the evolution of relevant El Niño forecasts and get to know additional sources of information for medium term and short term weather forecasts. They will get insights into how forecasts can be used for preparedness and anticipatory action.

Inputs by:

• SDC Regional Hub Bangkok: Omar Bellprat, Regional Advisor and Programme Manager Southeast Asia. PhD in climate sciences from ETH Zurich, with work experience at MeteoSuisse and SDC’s thematic hubs in Lima and Bangkok
• SDC Regional Hub Lima : Rafael Millán, Associate Regional Director at SDC’s thematic hub in Lima

Participation:

Online access via MS Teams. Please register here.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

André Wehrli, Sector Policy Advisor for Climate, DRR and Environment CDE at SDC
Ali Neumann, Head of Expert Group DRR/Environment of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit
Omar Bellprat, SDC Regional Hub Bangkok
Rafael Millán, SDC Regional Hub Lima