- The Vice-President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, pointed out that “an effort has been made to broaden the perspective, identifying research groups that work on risks, impacts and mitigation through surveys distributed in the Spanish scientific community”
- For her part, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, underlined the value of science and talent in our country as a compass that should guide public policies in Spain
- The book addresses the historical evolution of climate research at the national level and the role and trajectory of CLIVAR-Spain in its more than two decades of activity
- It also contributes to the development of the lines of action included in the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030, which identifies the need to strengthen or promote the creation of spaces and networks for exchange, collaboration and coordination between research staff and the different adaptation actors
- Since its creation in 2004, the committee and the Thematic Network have established themselves as a benchmark in the generation and articulation of scientific knowledge on the physical processes of the climate system and the effects of climate change
The Vice-President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, and the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, presented on Tuesday the ‘White Paper on Climate Science in Spain’.
At an event held at the Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Sciences, Aagesen stated that, “for the first time, an effort has been made to broaden the perspective, identifying research groups that work on risks, impacts and mitigation through surveys distributed in the Spanish scientific community”.
“The information collected is an X-ray of the intense activity of the Spanish scientific community that researches the climate and that allows us to understand its state, diversity and potential; identify lines of research; visualising collaborations, and detecting strengths and areas for improvement”, said the vice-president.
For his part, Morant underlined the value of science and talent in our country as a compass that should guide public decisions. “We need to walk hand in hand with science. In Spain we have threats against climate change, but we have a great strength, which is our public scientific system,” he said.
The minister also stated that the Government is on the side of science fighting against climate denialism, misinformation, false narratives that endanger lives and weaken our democracies.
The researchers María Belén Rodríguez de Fonseca and Ana Casanueva Vicente also took part in the presentation ceremony.
Rodríguez de Fonseca is a former coordinator of the CLIVAR committee and co-author of the White Paper, she has been a professor at the Complutense University of Madrid since 2022 and a researcher at the Institute of Geosciences (IGEO). His research focuses on understanding climate variability and its impacts on sectors of great importance to society.
Casanueva is a full professor at the University of Cantabria (UC) in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. His research team is Grupo de Meteorología de Santander, made up of professors from the UC and the Institute of Physics of Cantabria. His research focuses on climate regionalization techniques and models to study regional climate change and heat stress as a problem for the health of the general population and in the context of health and labor productivity.
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF CLIMATE RESEARCH
The White Paper offers a global vision of the research activity carried out in climate sciences in Spain, based on information collected by the CLIVAR Network and with the support of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge in the editorial preparation and dissemination of its content.
This document includes the historical evolution of climate research at the national level, the role and trajectory of CLIVAR-Spain in its more than two decades of activity, as well as including a comparative analysis of the situation with respect to previous years and a general characterization of the participating groups.
The publication, which complements the CLIVAR reports on Climate in Spain, published in 2004, 2010 and 2024, highlights both the climatic and territorial breadth, as well as their institutional and geographical dispersion.
This book contributes to the development of the lines of action included in the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030, which identifies the need to strengthen or promote the creation of spaces and networks for exchange, collaboration and coordination between research staff and the different adaptation actors.
CLIVAR-SPAIN
Since its creation in 2004, the committee and Thematic Network has established itself as a benchmark in the generation and articulation of scientific knowledge on the physical processes of the climate system and the effects of climate change. The main objective of the Network is the physical science of climate in Spain, ranging from palaeoclimatic studies, instrumental observations, numerical modelling of the atmosphere and ocean, to regionalised projections over the western Mediterranean.
One of its main tasks was to organize a symposium in February 2005 that made it possible to learn about the state of the art in all areas of research and brought together about 50 teams made up of universities, public and research organizations. The result was reflected in the first report of the CLIVAR Thematic Network in 2006 ‘State of Climate Research in Spain’.
From that moment on, the Network works to seek funding to consolidate the coordination work in the climate community in Spain, strengthen the relationship with other committees to merge their activities, and act as a common reference for the country’s research community. Its relationship with international institutions, in particular CLIVAR International, and its ambitious objective of replicating, at the regional level, the philosophy and functions of the work cycles of the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should be highlighted.
In the last 25 years, different cycles of activity have been developed that have given rise to the following publications: ‘Climate in Spain: past, present and future’ (2010), ‘Special Issue on climate over the Iberian Peninsula: an overview of CLIVAR-Spain coordinated science‘ (2017) and ‘Climate in the Iberian Peninsula: executive summary of CLIVAR-Spain’ (2019).
The last cycle of activity of the Network begins in 2023 with the congress ‘CLIVAR 2023: Towards an integrated view of climate’, in Madrid, which was attended by 150 scientists specialized in climate science. From this meeting emerged the basis for the preparation of the ‘CLIVAR Report – Spain’, published in 2025, and this White Paper. For this occasion, the Network broadened its perspective to identify other research groups working on climate change risks, impacts and mitigation through surveys distributed to the Spanish scientific community.
CLIMATE EMERGENCY
The latest IPCC report noted that between 2011 and 2020 the global average temperature was the warmest on record. In Spain, 2025 became the third warmest year in the historical series, along with 2024, according to the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
In the face of the climate emergency and the current context, marked by the proliferation of discourses that question scientific evidence, it is essential to recognise and value the work of researchers.
The ‘White Paper on Climate Science in Spain’ underlines the value of coordination and dissemination initiatives that favour the exchange, cooperation and cohesion of a scientific community. These initiatives are essential to improve the implementation of policies based on scientific knowledge.
