New Delhi : The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as a premier institute working on climate change issues has acquired the latest state-of-the-art supercomputer from WIPRO, to address the gaps and develop a better understanding of climate variability and climate change at different spatial and temporal scales.

Climate change has emerged as a global challenge to sustainable development and world wide climate scientists are focused on constantly improving the understanding of the climate dynamics and associated impacts. Indian is significantly vulnerable to climate change and there is still a significant lack of institutional capacity in the country for generating the right kind of strategic knowledge that can help policy makers in informed decision making to deal with climate change.

As a renowned global institute, TERI has been consciously endeavoring to upscale its institutional capabilities for climate change projections, both at global and regional scales, and to assess climate impacts on important sectors like agriculture, water resources and health. With the acquisition of Wipro’s supercomputer, TERI will not only become one of the leading centers of excellence on climate modeling in the Indian subcontinent but also a hub for regional and global data, training, and capacity building.

“Climate modeling at TERI envisions addressing key environmental challenges from global to local levels, by providing plausible scientific knowledge on climate change issues with the help of next generation climate models. WIPRO’s supercomputer will help in fine-tuning the complexities attached in predicting the climate patterns so that they can be used for climate change projections and regional impact assessment studies” said Dr R. K Pachauri, Director General TERI. “

Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited said, “A successful development policy can be formulated only if the uncertainties in climate impact assessments can be minimized, or at least quantified. I am happy that TERI has acquired Wipro’s supercomputer to perform the new generation Earth’s climate system simulations.”

Impacts of climate change in India are unique due to the diversity of ecosystems and topography. In order to develop a deeper understanding, especially at the regional level, TERI’s Climate modeling activities strives to understand the climate system through observations and modeling tools. Some of the key collaborations on climate research include those with Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Norway, United Kingdom Meteorological Office, UK and Asian Disaster Preparednes Center, Thailand. TERI is also active at the moment in contributing to the state action plans on climate change in a number of states in India.