Climate and Environmental Risk

Our society is increasingly feeling the real effects of climate change.

Wilder, warmer and wetter

More extreme weather events and phenomena resulting from climate change pose a serious threat to the economy, to our wellbeing and to society as a whole, but they also offer new opportunities.

At the same time, knowledge about climate change is steadily improving and we can argue with even greater certainty that the changes we are experiencing are caused by human influence on climate.

Predicts climate risk and develops better seasonal forecasts

The broad expertise that NORCE can offer in climate, environmental management, technology development, energy transition and social research is rigged for both multidisciplinary and pinpointed commitment to climate challenges.

NORCE works with large amounts of data and long time series in climate modelling, high performance computing and climate models, and develops seasonal forecasts and scenario planning. Attention is turning to managing climate risk in a number of fields. NORCE provides relevant knowledge about climate risk in public health, infrastructure, land-use planning, carbon capture and storage, climate policy and biodiversity.

Developing a knowledge base for better decisions

NORCE researches the types of data and experiences different actors in society can use to calibrate local and relevant understanding of climate issues.

We investigate how different climate data and climate experiences create a stronger understanding.

We analyse how climate challenges catalyse change: politically, organisationally and personally.

We see how understanding climate issues facilitates new forms and models of interaction and how ongoing climate change plays into management, policy-making and practice.

Finally, we research the possibilities and limitations of technology development and implementation in the field of climate change. 

Climate issues create new dynamics – in the relationships between research and society, between technology, industry and management and also between decision-makers and citizens.

There is reason to assume that climate issues have consequences for how we as a society cooperate: climate issues are increasingly recognised as complex problems that cannot be solved by individual actors or groups. At the same time, there are also constant contradictions between climate issues and other sustainability issues.

Biodiversity is threatened by climate adaptations and renewable energy production, social diversity and equality are threatened by increased population density, restrictions on fossil-fuelled mobility and electric car subsidies, to name a few such issues. With its research, NORCE intends to ensure vigilance around such dilemmas, and help to understand and resolve the conflicts that arise.