On Friday 31 May, the publication of the Belgian climate projections and climate impact indicators on the federal geodata portal was launched at the Belgian Climate Centre. Belgian climate projections and impact indicators are now accessible through the federal geodata portal of the National Geographic Institute (NGI-IGN) [LINK].
The event gathered about 50 participants from the Belgian climate modelling community and users of climate projections from research, policy, public and private sectors.
Detailed climate projections for Belgium that answer user needs in support of climate adaptation
In complement to existing international projections, these Belgian climate projections with a high level of temporal and spatial detail are crucial to study climate extremes. The published projections follow the emission scenarios (or Representative Concentration Pathways) as used in the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
These climate projections and impact indicators were produced in the context of two former projects based on collaborations between the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI-IRM-RMI) and the modelling groups of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and University of Liège. The scientific background and methodologies that were used to produce the climate projections and impact indicators were presented.
Thanks to the Belgian Climate Centre, who acted as a catalyzer in the publication process, and supported by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI-IRM-RMI) and National Geographic Institute (NGI-IGN), the centralized access to these existing projections and indicators constitutes the current and best available information describing the future climate in Belgium and, moreover, meets multiple user needs.
The panel discussion during the event indeed demonstrated the relevance of these projections and impact indicators:
for research applications linked to climate change impact studies on health, more specifically the impacts of extreme temperature on mortality, as well as the impact of droughts on plant growth and development;
to quantify the future physical climate hazards, which is needed for estimates of losses for the insurance sector and for climate and environmental risk assessments that will be one of the core activities of the Belgian Center for Risk Assessment on Climate Change (CERAC);
to set priorities and define measures in the adaptation plans and strategies.
Furthermore, the interactions during the event highlighted the user interest for uptake of the published projections and indicators and the role of the Climate Centre as contact point for the provision of user support and expertise.
Perspectives
The best practices from this publication process are very valuable in view of the new Belgian climate projections that are currently being updated to be in line with the latest emission scenarios from the 6th IPCC Assessment Report and which are expected to be ready in 2026. This work is supported by the Belgian Climate Centre and carried out by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (KMI-IRM-RMI), KU Leuven, and University of Liège. For more information, visit the project website: https://cordex.meteo.be/.
Thank you to all participants and speakers for making this event a success!
Summary with the key messages on the publication of the Belgian climate projections and impact indicators and the main future climate change trends in Belgium
Presentations
Please find hereby a link to the presentations that were given during the event.
Introduction and summary of the Belgian climate projections
The importance of open and centralized data to strengthen knowledge transfer
Research and methodologies used for the climate projections and impact indicators
The story behind the climate projections: Combining regional downscaling expertise in Belgium (CORDEX.be)
The story behind the impact indicators: Coherent integration of climate projections into climate adaptation planning tools for Belgium (CICADA.be)
Demo on how to download the data through the federal geodata portal
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