Energy-meteorology education workshop at the International Conference on Energy and Meteorology

As part of the World Energy and Meteorology Council's (WEMC) seventh International Conference on Energy and Meteorology (ICEM), Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) Energy Science Engagement Fellow Matthew Wright was involved in organising a workshop on Energy and Meteorology Education. Matthew co-organised this with Juan A. Añel, from the Universidade de Vigo and Spanish Royal Physics Society. The workshop was a success, with participants from across energy, weather and climate contributing to identify gaps and solutions in this important area. The workshop then split into breakout groups, to brainstorm gaps in energy and meteorology education and collaborate on a vision for this space. With attendees spanning academia, private companies and operational forecasters, each participant was able to bring their own expertise and experience to the discussion. We had a diverse range of experience and career stages present, from Master's and PhD students, to start-up founders and senior academics. This made for a varied and lively workshop experience. One of the biggest gaps identified by the breakout groups was the lack of connection between siloed departments in universities, or teams in companies. Whilst there is lots of expertise individually in energy, weather/climate and data science/machine learning, there is still not enough at the intersection of all three. All three are required to effectively meet the challenges facing the energy sector. Education in energy-meteorology should look to bridge the gaps between these three components. The difference between weather and climate education in the energy sector was another common theme. Attendees felt that climate change is incorporated and considered a lot more readily by energy companies than weather impacts are. More needs to be done to fill the hole between weather and climate, including improving the energy sector's understanding of sub-seasonal and seasonal forecasts. Simultaneously, it was agreed that there should be a focus on seamless weather/climate prediction services that enable the same skills to be used to analyse forecasts and projections across a range of timescales. Towards the end of the workshop, we touched on how to communicate the links between weather/climate and the energy sector to the general public (Figure 1). Juan and Matthew shared their personal experiences in this space, including Juan's media experience and RMetS's Climate Change Communications Training. Attendees agreed that the lack of understanding amongst the general public about weather/energy links needs addressing. For example, the group felt the public does not have a very deep understanding about the relationship between weather conditions and how much renewable power can be produced, and what this means for energy supply and price. Increasing the general public's understanding should be done with simple, clear communication that highlights the synergies between the energy consumers use, and the weather and climate. In terms of how the workshop sees future education in this space, the group felt it was important to maintain a balance of formal education courses and informal, on-demand courses like MOOCs. The latter could be taken by employees looking to ‘up-skill’, or brush up on a certain area that they do not have a formal background in. At the moment, both formal and informal courses are lacking in depth, breadth and availability. It is this lack of quality and availability that is the major barrier to energy-meteorology education, not the cost or the will to engage. Workshop attendees felt it was important that formal education courses, for example, Master's courses, are delivered in-person, or in a hybrid format. Informal education, such as short courses and self-learning, should be more flexible, with fully online and on-demand options. Currently, energy-meteorology education does not begin in school, but at universities (and often not until postgraduate level). Lots of value could be added by starting education about the links between energy, weather and climate earlier in the education system, for example, during physics lessons at school. Producing resources that can be used by teachers would help achieve this aim. This would sit alongside national curricula, and be complementary to the multitude of existing efforts to improve climate change and weather education. Overall, this was a successful workshop, but there is still much more work to be done to improve energy and meteorology education. RMetS will continue to work on improving educational resources for weather and climate, alongside organisations like WEMC. This will include producing resources (events, blogs and briefings) for the energy sector, as well as support for teachers earlier on in the education system through our ongoing educational programme. We are aiming to bridge the gap between weather and climate science and the energy sector to improve results in this important area. If you are interested in finding out more about the work RMetS does for the energy sector, sign up to our mailing list (at www.rmets.org/energy-special-interest-group). Matthew Wright: Writing – original draft; conceptualisation; resources; project administration; methodology. Juan A. Añel: Writing – review and editing; conceptualisation; resources; project administration; methodology. Hannah Mallinson: Conceptualisation; writing – review and editing.