WEMC celebrates five productive years in the field of weather and climate for the energy transition!
We’re in celebratory mood as this November marks the significant 5th birthday of the World Energy & Meteorology Council (WEMC).
As an international organisation working with stakeholders worldwide to address climate change more effectively by improving the transfer of knowledge, exchanges and tools between academic research and the energy industry, the UPCOMING exciting launch of Teal – our free, easy-to-use climate tool that explores historical data – crowns our first five years of collaborative achievements.
Our first project in 2015 with the European Climatic Energy Mixes (ECEM) proof-of-concept model, led by WEMC Director, Professor Alberto Troccoli, was successfully completed in 2018. We worked in collaboration with leaders of industry and academic research in the fields of energy and meteorology including Electricité De France (EDF, France), the Met Office (UK), ARMINES (France), the University of Reading (UK) and the Agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable development (ENEA, Italy).
Next, our strong affiliation with energy transition made a significant impact from 2018 on the C3S Energy project, developing an operational climate service for the energy sector and continuing on with the C3S Energy Project Service Development, led and executed by WEMC in collaboration with Météo-France and EDF, France. Carlo Buontempo, Director of Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF summarises our impact:
“WEMC played a key role in the interface between the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the energy sector. The experience that WEMC gained in this field allowed them to expand beyond energy and develop novel ways to present climate data to a variety of users.”
No celebration would be complete without our dedicated team joining in from across the globe and our headquarters at the Enterprise Centre in Norwich, UK. From academia to the commercial sector, computer science to creative arts, we are proud of our diverse team, as recognised by our Founder and Services Director, and Lead Scientist in Weather and Climate at RTE, Laurent Dubus:
“The last five years have passed so fast, working with a great team made of enthusiastic individuals! And we have so many exciting projects ahead. Happy 5th Birthday WEMC!”
Those ‘exciting projects’ include the H2020 SECLI-FIRM and newly launched FOCUS-Africa where as well as developing climate services WEMC contributes to project management and communication, disciplines in which the team has built a strong record.
Birthday congratulations and recognition received from our world class partners and board members are the icing on the cake this month too:
“WMO recognize the pivotal role WEMC plays at an international level and to build a bridge between the energy industry and the providers of meteorological information.”
Roberta Boscolo, WEMC Advisory Board member and Climate and Energy Science Officer at the World Meteorological Organization
“We have found a lot of value in collaboration with WEMC, particularly with the growing impact of climate change on the future outlook for the solar, wind and water resources. It is essential to understand the nexus between climate and energy, and properly plan for the future.”
Charles Smith, Executive Director, Energy Systems Integration Group and WEMC Advisory Board member
So, what better way to celebrate our 5th anniversary than the gift of a new climate and energy visualisation tool free for all to use?
The reveal of Teal, a free climate visualisation tool born from earlier development work on the C3S Climate & Energy Education Demonstrator (Edu Demo) coincides with our 5th birthday celebrations. Watch this space!
Our 5th birthday celebrations in 2020, a challenging year, make us more determined than ever to collaborate with stakeholders worldwide to address climate change more effectively. As well as the development of climate services and tools and project work, WEMC has attracted hundreds of global sign-ups to its free membership offer and delivered six International Conference Energy and Meteorology (ICEM) conferences.
Sue Ellen Haupt, Senior Scientist and Deputy Director of the Research Applications Laboratory and WEMC Founder and Director of Research, remembers the excitement of the inception of WEMC:
“I was thrilled, in 2015, to become part of the leadership of this nascent organization with so much potential to do good in the world.”
Founding and Managing Director, Professor Alberto Troccoli, expresses our thanks to the many partners, members and colleagues that have contributed to five productive years for WEMC; together we have built a robust organization. All our team raise a virtual toast with, and to, you this November “to our 5th anniversary and beyond!”
