The WCRP (World Climate Research Programme) held its 2023 Open Science Meeting “Advancing Climate Science for a Sustainable Future” in Kigali, Rwanda from 23-27th October. The meeting brought together more than 1400 climate scientists from all over the world to discuss the latest developments in the field. A special focus was on impacts of climate change on the global south, where the imbalance between climate risks and the climate knowledge and adaptation resource base is most marked.Sandy attended the meeting to take part in the VESRI Town Hall meetings, where she presented an update on Lemontree research on developing the next-generation of vegetation models for examining land-atmosphere exchanges. Land-surface modelling did not figure very prominently at the meeting. “I was disappointed at the lack of attention given to improving the representation of vegetation in climate models at the conferences, given how poorly the current generation
of models performs and how crucial the land surface is in controlling water and energy exchanges” said Sandy. On a more positive note, the meeting was an opportunity to forge alliances with a number of groups from Africa working on topics that are also being tackled in Lemontree. “We do not have a group from Africa associated with the Lemontree project at the moment, but I hope that as a result of my conversations at the meeting we can connect with the scientists there who are working on vegetation modelling in the near future – this would be a big gain for Lemontree.”