The second session of the WCRP Climate Research Forum “Climate research priorities for the next decade” was held successfully on April 7, 2021. It was an international forum focusing on the Eastern Asia region, and it was organized under the leadership of the WCRP, WCRP Eastern Asia Regional Focal Points, and with the support of the international offices of S2S and CLIVAR. The meeting has attracted over 200 participants from all over the world.

The Forum consisted of 5 sessions. In the first two sessions, Helen Cleugh, Vice-chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC), made a brief introduction of the WCRP Climate Research Forums and an overview of the WCRP itself. This was followed by talks highlighting climate science priorities and opportunities for collaboration in the Eastern Asian Region from an agency perspective. Dr. Hyunsoo Lee (Korea Meteorological Administration), Mr. Yoshinori Oikawa (Tokyo Climate Center of Japan Meteorological Agency), and Prof. Panmao Zhai (Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences) gave their presentations respectively. The fourth session included a talk presented by Prof. Tandong Yao (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) on the topic of “Third Pole Environment” and a discussion on “how early career scientists benefit from WCRP” carried out by 6 ECS from Korea, Japan and China. Some important questions of climate research in the Eastern Asia region were inspired and discussed during the Q&A session. At the end of the meeting, the Vice-chair of the JSC welcomed suggestions, feedback and questions from broad communities on the WCRP activities, and encouraged the engagement with WCRP to co-design and co-deliver the researches in the future.

Despite the challenges presented by the online format, this Forum was very fruitful. The video recording of the event is now available online, and the report is under preparation.