Relevant Events

Event Information:

• Mon

  19

  May

  2014

  BoF: NREN climate change preparedness

  Dublin, Ireland

  https://tnc2014.terena.org/core/event/13

  With each passing year, sustainability becomes a more relevant topic for Higher Ed institutions and networks. To date most institutions and NRENs have been focusing on how to mitigate against Climate Change by adopting various green policies and energy efficiency initiatives. But another important aspect of the reality of Climate Change is adaptation or preparedness. We are already committed to a 2C average temperature increase because of the accumulation of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in our atmosphere since the industrial age. And if we continue on our current trajectory of increasing GHG emissions the world may warm up by as much as 5C by the end of the century. Even a 2C global average temperature increase is going to result in significantly greater frequency of severe weather events such as flooding, droughts, hurricanes, etc

  Many scientists are now arguing that we must spend an equal effort on adaptation or preparedness for Climate Change as we do on mitigation. Some governments are already mandating institutions and other organizations to start to prepare Climate Change Preparedness plans. For example President Obama has recently issued an Executive order for all US government departments and agencies to develop such plans. It is expected that many European governments will soon adopt similar policies.

  The purpose of this BOF is to discuss and explore how NRENs and HE institutions can develop Climate Change Preparedness plans. These plans will help them to identify aspects of their networks and services that may be susceptible to Climate Change events such as flooding and major long term outages in the electrical grid. The plans will also help them to develop strategies to makes their institutions or networks more resilient or robust. The other important part of the discussion in the BOF is to explore how NRENs can help HE institutions become more resilient and robust in the event of extreme weather related events due to Climate Change

  The results of the BoF will also be picked up/activated in the GN3+ Green Team and discussed with TERENA and DANTE.