First mapping of encounters between users and providers of climate services

The milestone ‘First mapping of encounters between providers and users of climate services’ serves as a preparation for the deliverable D5.1 ‘Assessment report on place-based knowledge needs and narratives of climate change for maintaining trust in standardized CS’. The milestone is closely linked to task 5.2, ‘Adding CS support and value to local policy and decision-making’, with a special focus on placebased narratives of climate risk assessment. In this milestone, we argue from a decidedly social science and humanities perspective. In the first part, we provide a critical assessment of provider – user interactions in climate service literature. In the second part, we discuss the encounters between providers and users in the context of climate policy. Drawing examples from a great variety of climate service literature and case studies, we discuss in the following the role of narratives of change, of different systems of knowledge and the need to decolonize climate services. In the appendix, we provide elements of three case studies to explore the possibilities of standardization and policy support in the course of Climateurope2. The milestone is written in reference to the framework provided by WP1, the definitions of high-quality knowledge and mapping of provider- and user landscapes in WP4 (D4.1) and the guidelines for engaging with users in WP6 (milestone 6.1), supplemented by case studies from ERA4CS and examples from our own case studies. The goal is to provide first elements for policy support, to highlight the role of narratives of change for building and maintaining trust, and to lay a ground for the identification of processes which are suitable for standardization.