Tanzania to host Africa Climate ConferenceAfrica is the continent most vulnerable to current climate variability and extremes and the one most likely to suffer adverse effects of climate change. Adaptation policies and actions will be most effective if based on the best possible knowledge concerning current and future climate. To achieve this, we must fill the large gaps in our understanding of African climate through scientific research, and ensure that climate research outputs are communicated in a form that is useful and accessible to decision makers.The Africa Climate Conference 2013, organized under the auspices of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), will bring together decision-makers and climate researchers, scientists and practitioners from Africa and around the world, to jointly: 1) identify the state of knowledge on the African climate system, recognizing current gaps in climate knowledge; 2) define and drive an African agenda for future climate research that will inform adaptation decisions out to the mid- to end 21st Century.; 3) develop a framework for mainstreaming climate information into decision making, as well as a network of experts who evaluate and interpret this knowledge for practical applications in areas such as agriculture and food production, water resources management, climate risk management and adaptation planning, etc.The expected outcome from the Conference is a set of concrete research proposals to address the critical gaps in our knowledge of the African climate system, led by regional and national institutions and experts, to provide science-based climate knowledge that will inform decision-making out to the mid- to end 21st Century in Africa in the many sectors affected by climate variability and change.