Understanding climate
for the benefit of society

A year of consolidation

2015 was a year of growth for the Bjerknes Centre, Director Tore Furevik writes.

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The Bjerknes Centre keeps growing and it now exceeds 200 employees from about 40 nations. We also grow competitively with regard to bids for research projects. Notably, this year includes a consolidator grant from the European Research Council and also a large infrastructure project ICOS of close to 100 million NOK. In terms of funding grants from the Research Council of Norway and the European Commission, the partners of the Bjerknes Centre are listed within the top two and top three national institutions, respectively.


Annual Report 2015 by Bjerknessenteret on Exposure

 

Tore Furevik
Tore Furevik Direktør ved Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning. Foto: UiB

The Centre’s scientific production, in terms of articles in the peerreview literature, was about the same level as last year. Bjerknes scientists continue to be pivotal contributors to new data sets resulting from many years of sustained and systematic work such as DATED, SOCAT-3 and GLODAP-2. Such data sets are invaluable for the world research community.

Bjerknes continues to attract the international scientific community to Bergen. This year, it hosted two major workshops: 50 participants gathered to discuss high-latitude dynamics, while the 45th Arctic international workshop attracted more than 100 participants. I can say with confidence that the Centre’s status as a major international climate research centre – in terms of size, projects, publications and international engagements – is strong.

Climate education and outreach

The very first Norwegian Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) in climate was launched this year. Bjerknes scientists were in charge of the entire set of lectures, while questions from participants were answered by Bjerknes-affiliated PhD candidates. The MOOC had 8000 “students”, and they posed a total of 5600 written questions. This exercise exceeded all expectations and it proved to be a great success. The course will be repeated in 2016.

Much of the research training at the Centre has been organised under the national Research School in Climate Dynamics (RESCLIM) that will end in 2016. Funding for a new school has now been secured, and the new name to remember is the Norwegian Research School on Changing Climate in the coupled Earth System (CHESS). This school will gradually take over many of the courses, training workshops and summer schools that have been established at the Centre.

The Centre continues to receive visits from a variety of organisations seeking knowledge-based information on climate and climate related issues. In 2015 we hosted politicians and bureaucrats from a number of European countries; a delegation of administrators from 12 US universities, leaders of several Russian fishery organisations, the general secretary for the World Council of Religious Leaders, the new aspirants at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as many local high-school classes with their teachers.

An important year for climate

As had been forecast for a while, 2015 became the warmest year ever measured on the planet. The globally averaged surface temperature shattered the previous record set in 2014 by 0.15°C, and is for the first time 1°C higher than the late 19th century temperature. In Norway it was the second warmest and third wettest year in history. 

But there were also good news. The Global Carbon Project, with contributions from the Bjerknes Centre, estimated a decrease in the global greenhouse gas emissions from 2014 to 2015, partly due to an explosive increase in renewable energy. And the Paris agreement was adopted. For the first time in history the world has an agreement to reduce climate change, and a concrete implementation plan on how to limit global warming.

Norway follows the rest of Europe and has agreed to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030. With only 14 years to accomplish this reduction, the urgency is high for moving towards a green, resilient, low emission society. We will contribute to this shift by continuing solution-oriented research and dissemination of knowledge to society. Examples are the reports Sea-level change for Norway and Climate in Norway 2100, and the upcoming Nordic conference on climate change adaptation From research to action, where we expect 300 participants to Bergen in August.

Co-location finally in sight

Funding for renovation and refurbishment of the West Wing of the Geophysical institute were secured early in 2015. Work has already started at full speed. The Bjerknes staff from UiB and Uni Research will be the first to move into brand new office space already in 2017, the same year the Geophysical Institute is 100 years old and the Bjerknes Centre will celebrate its 15th anniversary. I look forward to the celebrations.

 

View the complete version of the annual report of 2015 here