The document discusses the DARECLIMED project which aims to improve cooperation on climate change data between countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region. It seeks to create a regional data infrastructure and repository for climate, energy and water data. It also wants to develop standards for data sharing and quality control. However, the document notes that political issues present challenges to scientific cooperation in the region, as countries do not always share data due to sensitivities over water, energy and other resources.

1. DARECLIMED EU-Israel cooperation on Climate Change 2 November 2011 http://eewrc.cyi.ac.cy/DARECLIMED

2. DARECLIMED Project Partners 1 THE CYPRUS RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, Cyprus 2 CAIRO UNIVERSITY, Egypt 3 BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION, ACADEMY OF ATHENS, Greece 4 TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY, Israel 5 WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, Israel 6 PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS (UNIVERSITY OF CRETE, Greece 7 ISTANBUL TEKNIK UNIVERSITESI, Turkey http://eewrc.cyi.ac.cy/DARECLIMED

3. Da ta Re positories and Computational Infrastructure for Environmental and Cli mate Studies in the Eastern Med iterranean Create the appropriate environment for the formation of a regional data infrastructure devoted to paleo-, current- and future climate, energy and water related data Improve availability of data relevant to climate change assessments for the region, aiming for standards comparable to those of Western Europe Identify and engage stakeholders in the region that have access to, own or have collected data Define conditions for data sharing while protecting the rights and interests of stakeholders Develop broadly accepted quality control standards and procedures for all data types Agree on minimal information, harmonization procedures and common representations of the data, so as to make them interoperable Develop a framework and capacity for comparison and integration of climate projections for the region from multiple datasets and models Support the build-up and integration of a regional infrastructure for climate research, with an emphasis on computing resources, through networking and prospective activities that will also facilitate the incubation of future collaborative climate research Assess the current use of computer resources by the regional climate community Promote sharing of RCM models and RCM simulation results (including the creation of adequate repositories), so as to advance the use of computational resources and enable a broadly accepted scientific consensus on regional climate modeling and resulting climate projections.

4. Cooperation, Cooperation Well known problem among countries in the regions - even Arab to Arab Problem inside a country, even in Israel, familiar to everyone in the community Problem even in Europe - data sold not given away Meta-data realistic goal (?). Should be in interest of data owners themselves

5. Meteorological Cooperation Meteorology - continental scale 100 years of cooperation. WMO predates UN. Climate - global scale Water - regarded as state secret Energy - the same. Kyoto and similar forces countries to reveal data Now just need to convince politicians

6. East Mediterranean Drying out (20% less rain past 30 years Southern Italy) Warm spells (increase in Israel number consecutive days, and number of spells) Extreme rainfall, heavy floods Water scarcity due to population growth Energy supply uncertain - recent example in Israel-Egypt problem

7. DARECLIMED problems Political project more than scientific ! Science part straightforward (though not trivial) Arab spring - wrench in wheels Anecdote - Egyptian partner disappearing Syrian partner - alive last I heard Turkish partner - may change mind about talking with Cypriots/Israelis… Jordanian connection - O.K. Greeks, Cypriots, Israelis - at least still on speaking terms Project in my view focus on connecting people, organizations. Meetings, a lot of meetings.

8. Meta-Data Water - EMWIS Atmosphere - CIRCE Energy - ?