Appendix F

Project Opportunities Identified during Workshop on Climate Change (2015)

Individual Views of Eight Participants from United States, Eight from Iran, and Four from France; Workshop in Tourtour, France, 2015.

STRATEGIC APPROACHES OF IRAN

1. Encourage the Iranian government to support a broadly based climate assessment of current and future conditions in a selected region of the country, in cooperation with scientists who are familiar with similar efforts in other countries that in time spread to encompass the entire country.
2. Prepare articles on “New Directions” for the journals Science and Nature that summarize the outlook on selected climate change issues and suggest strategies for Iran.
3. Install water catchment tanks in mountains and valleys of wildlife parks and protected areas to catch winter/spring runoff, thereby saving costs of importing water for animals by tankers.
4. Work with the U.N. office in Tehran in establishing private sector entities for addressing specific environmental problems that are well suited for management and/or advisory services by nongovernmental institutions.
5. Establish a national association of climate change specialists and interested organizations as an important focal point for discussions

5. with Iranian government individuals and organizations about the causes and impacts of climate change.
6. Before launching major climate change projects in Iran, give careful consideration to availability of essential meteorological parameters and information; and to this end, equip remote areas including national ecosystems such as forests with data collection equipment.
7. Install in Iran monitoring stations that can be focal points for collection, compiling, and sharing of international and local data, including data to be used by graduate students in carrying out their assignments.

INTERNATIONAL-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES

8. Encourage international organizations to become more active in supporting pilot projects in the Lake Urmia Basin that reduce agricultural water demands while transferring water to meet environmental needs.
9. Install adequate networks of air and water monitoring stations along the borders of Iran and in nearby geographic neighborhoods for acquisition of missing data.
10. Emphasize “regional” modeling of pollution in specific areas of Iran and its geographical neighbors.
11. Promote collaboration between U.S. and Iranian universities in promoting urban areas that can effectively cope with impacts of climate change.
12. Establish summer schools in technical fields, including observations and modeling, that involve post-doctoral and graduate students, both in Iran and abroad, in convenient locations such as areas near Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.
13. Provide seed funding for American scientists to conduct 1 to 2-year research efforts at Iranian universities in cooperative efforts that can provide sustained contributions to international science for decades.
14. Ensure that sanctions do not inhibit efforts by American and French scientists to work with Iranian counterparts in carrying out research and in contributing to capacity building.
15. Encourage French-Iranian cooperation in building on international experience in the training of children on climate change.
16. Increase the number, frequency, and variety of international climate-change conferences in Iran.

17. Encourage international efforts to consider whether and how countries in northern and other latitudes where water supplies are stable or increasing could develop innovative approaches to water-sharing with water-deficit countries, including possible diversion of water resources across international boundaries.
18. Encourage the Iranian government to reach out to other governments in efforts to improve science education in Iran, beginning with an international conference on climate-change education as an example of the importance of applications of science, with a near-term objective of establishing prototype courses in Iranian schools.

TECHNOLOGIES AND TECHNICAL APPROACHES OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO IRAN

19. Establish Iranian cooperation with international scientists in establishing joint centers to conduct research on renewable energy sources, such as biofuels.
20. Collaborate in improving desulfurization technologies.
21. Conduct pilot studies on selected techniques to restore and preserve wetlands.
22. Investigate selected aspects of solar energy beyond those of current interest.
23. Investigate controlled environmental agriculture (greenhouses and hydroponics) in arid regions.
24. Develop demonstration projects for recycling waste-water through infiltration basins.
25. Emphasize paleo-climatic studies that enable Iranian scientists to become familiar with modern instruments and methods, including those used abroad.
26. Undertake dendrochronological studies that are important for reconstruction of missing data of critical importance in understanding climate change.
27. Provide grants for Iranian students to prepare masters/doctoral theses on specific technical aspects of climate change.

Source: “U.S.-Iran Symposium on Climate Change: Impacts of Mitigation, March 30 – April 1, 2015,” Prepared and Published by University of Arizona, 2016.

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