Towards a Climate Service for the Tea Industry: A Collaborative Approach between the UK and China

• Published in: Advances in atmospheric sciences 2024-12, Vol.41 (12), p.2289-2299
• Main Authors: New, Stacey, Li, Shaojuan, Zhao, Tongwen, Thompson, Elisabeth, Bown, Nicola, Mitchell, Tim, Waterson, Amy, Weeks, Jennifer H., Yang, Jing, Oakes, Rosie, Zhou, Tianjun, Golding, Nicola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences; Climate change; Climate variability; Collaboration; Collaborative work; Decision making; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geophysics/Geodesy; Meteorology; News & Views; Social interactions; Tea
• ISSN: 0256-1530; 1861-9533
• DOI: 10.1007/s00376-024-4302-8

Tea is an important global commodity, with important tea-growing regions spanning across South America, Africa, and Asia, and burgeoning smaller-scale and artisanal tea production in the UK and Europe. In each of these regions, the quality and quantity of tea production, with their economic and social consequences, are highly sensitive to variations in the climate on both short-term weather, seasonal and climate change timescales. The provision of tailored climate information in a timely and accessible manner through the development, delivery and use of climate services can help tea-farmers and other relevant stakeholders better understand the impacts of climate variability and climate change on decision-making and a range of adaptive actions. This paper presents an overview of the Tea-CUP project (Co-developing Useful Predictions), a joint initiative between UK and Chinese partners, which aims to develop and implement solutions for improving robust decision-making. Co-production principles are core, ensuring that the resultant climate services are usable and useful; users’ needs are met through close engagement and joint research and decision-making. The paper also reports on the exchange of knowledge and experiences, such as between tea growers in China and the UK, which has resulted from this collaborative work, fostering global knowledge sharing, enriching understanding, and driving innovation by integrating diverse perspectives and expertise from different countries. This is an unintended but valuable side-effect of the collaborative approach taken and highlights the benefits of a highly relational and multidisciplinary approach to climate services development that will inform future work in the field.