This week Birgit Falch and Nils Gunnar Kvamstø welcomed 17 Russians on a study visit to Bergen and Oslo. The group of delegates from the governments, universities and local business organisations in the two cities by the Baltic Sea, are participating in two energy and climate projects run by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
”We arranged this study visit to acquire Nordic experience from climate planning, action plans, energy efficiency, and renewable energy,” Natialia Khaluk, project coordinator at The Nordic Council of Ministers Information Office in Kaliningrad says.
Khaluk visited Bergen at the MARE-conference in May this year, and decided to arrange a study visit to Bergen and BCCR for the project attendants.
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| 17 delegates from St.Petersburg and Kaliningrad visited BCCR and GFI tuesday. Foto: Gudrun Sylte |
Tuesday, Nils Gunnar Kvamstø, Frode Vikebø and Michel Mesquita gave them an introduction to the BCCR’s research areas, global warming and climate change and an overview of the regional climate modeling activities at BCCR.
”It was very interesting to know more of the background of the climate changes and possible future influences of human life. In Kaliningrad we are vulnerable to sea level rise, as huge areas are below sea level, protected by dikes like in the Netherlands,” Khaluk says.
After Michel Mesquita’s speech, the Russians seemed to be interested in the distance-learning program he is developing with TERI, CICERO and the University of Iowa for capacity builing in climate science. The project is called LEAD, which stands for Long-term E-capaciity builDing for climate science.