By Editor

From 3–8 May 2026, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly was held in Vienna, Austria. The event brought together more than 20,000 participants, including several partners from the Climateurope2 project. In particular, Climateurope2 hosted a townhall session on Tuesday the 4th about “Enriching recommendations on data and processes for climate services through community feedback”.

Credit: Mikhail Ivanov

The session kick-started with an introduction to the Climateurope2 project given by Marta Terrado from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), who highlighted relevant project outputs, such as the CE2 community platform and the key messages on standardisation released by the project every year. Then, Julien Lenhardt from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) gave an overview of the guidelines and recommendations designed on “Data & processes”, highlighting the latest reports published by the project. The event finalised with a panel discussion moderated by Irene Lake from SMHI, involving both internal project panellists and external participants.

Townhall session panellists: Kirsten Halsnaes, Professor in Climate Economics at the Technical University of Denmark (Denmark), co-lead of the Climateurope2 WP on “Business models”; Shih-Yu Lee, Associate Research Fellow at the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica (Taiwan); Valerio Lembo, Researcher at the National Research Council, ISAC (Italy), member of CMIP Task Team on Climate Model Benchmarking; Douglas Maraun, Professor of Regional Climate Change at the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz (Austria), co-chair of the working group on Robust Climate Information of the WCRP; Marta Terrado, Senior researcher in the Earth Sciences department, BSC (Spain), lead of the Climateurope2 WP on “Communication, outreach and exploitation”.

The panel reflected on the roles, challenges, and needs associated with the standardisation of climate services. Key takeaways from the discussion highlighted that standards can help align approaches across different sectors by identifying existing overlaps and translating benchmarks into actionable practices, similar to the evaluation frameworks used for climate models. Panellists also noted that some decision-makers may not fully consider the quality of the climate information underpinning their decisions, underscoring the importance of ensuring the reliability and robustness of climate services. Furthermore, making standards and their associated criteria more accessible and easier to understand can enhance both the acceptance and usability of climate services.

The inclusion of a panellist from outside the European context provided valuable additional perspectives. This contribution reinforced the significance of the standardisation efforts currently underway in Europe, to which Climateurope2 contributes. It also highlighted the potential for this work to have a broader international impact, benefiting stakeholders beyond Europe, particularly in regions where the climate services ecosystem is less established.