Governments, climate scientists and humanitarian policymakers are putting vulnerable communities at risk by not providing existing life-saving climate data. Arame Tall of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre makes the point and says the failure is tragic because the information is available but is either unknown, unavailable or undecipherable for those in the “front line”, such as African farmers, whose daily decisions are life and death choices.

Arame says climate scientists are not mandated to get their information to the people who need it. She says humanitarian policymakers are failing to partner and dialogue with scientists to access the information they have. “There is a gap between climate scientists who create beautiful forecasts with wonderful information which is potentially life-saving but they don’t know what information humanitarians and those on the front line need. And on the other side of the gap are humanitarian decision makers and users like farmers, but in many cases they don’t know what information exists or how to get it in an usable form.”

Arame was a guest speaker invited by HFP to address a climate science humanitarian exchange working group at the Wellcome Trust in London, co-hosted by the UK Collaborative in Development Science (UKCDS). She praised HFP’s science-humanitarian exchange initiative for its pioneering work in creating an effective dialogue between climate scientists and humanitarian policymakers. Arame outlined to Garry Selfridge, the message she had for the London forum.