Leandro Baltasar Diaz ^1,2,3* Carla Gulizia ^1,2,3 Shipra Jain ^4,5 Gaby Sophie Langendijk ⁶ Hindumathi K Palanisamy ⁷ Valentina Rabanal ^8,9 Candice Charlton ¹⁰ Alima Dajuma ¹¹ Felix Kwabena Donkor ¹² TEMITOPE SAMUEL EGBEBIYI ^13,14 Ghafi KONDI AKARA ^15,16 Amna Jrrar ¹⁷ Md Rezwan Siddiqui ¹⁸ Yassine Ait Brahim ^19,20 Donatus Bapentire Angnuureng ²¹ Anna-Adriana Anschütz ²² Founi Mesmin Awo ^23,24 Alejandro Builes-Jaramillo ²⁵ Alison Cobb ²⁶ Mohamadou A. Diallo ^27,28 Houda ER-RETBY ^29,30,31 Thierry C. Fotso-Nguemo ³² Benjamin Gwinneth ³³ Masilin Gudoshava ³⁴ Franck Eitel Kemgang Ghomsi ^23,35,36 Inés Leyba ^1,37 Redouane Lguensat ^38,39 Roché Mahon ⁴⁰ Shailendra K. Mandal ⁴¹ Lucia Mumo ⁴² Meshel Muzuva ^43,44 Rodric Merime Nonki ⁴⁵ Juan Antonio Rivera ^3,46 Alcade C. Segnon ^47,48 Laouali Ibrahim ⁴⁹ Erlich-Honest Zauisomue ⁵⁰ Gilbert Siame ⁵¹

• ¹ Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos (DCAO), University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ² CONICET Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ³ Instituto Franco-Argentino de Estudios sobre el Clima y sus Impactos (IFAECI) – IRL 3351 – CNRS-CONICET-IRD-UBA. Buenos Aires, Argentina., Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ⁴ Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
• ⁵ Centre for Climate Research Singapore, National Environment Agency, Singapore, Singapore
• ⁶ Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Department, Deltares, Delft, Netherlands
• ⁷ World Climate Research Programme, Science and Innovation Department, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
• ⁸ National Meteorological Service (Argentina), Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ⁹ Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) Community, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ¹⁰ University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica
• ¹¹ Université Peleforo Gon Coulibaly, Département de Mathématiques-Physique-Chimie, Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire
• ¹² University of Education, Winneba, Winneba, Ghana
• ¹³ Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG), Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
• ¹⁴ African Climate and Development Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
• ¹⁵ African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Research Innovation Centre (AIMS RIC), Kigali, Rwanda
• ¹⁶ African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
• ¹⁷ El Hassan Research Chair for Sustainability, Royal Scientific Society, Amman, Jordan
• ¹⁸ Department of Social Relations, East West University, Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• ¹⁹ International Water Research Institute, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
• ²⁰ Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
• ²¹ ACECoR, Centre for Coastal Management, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Central Region, Ghana
• ²² Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (LG), Warnemünde, Germany
• ²³ Nansen-Tutu Centre for Marine Environmental Research, Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
• ²⁴ International Chair in Mathematical Physics and Applications, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
• ²⁵ Facultad de Arquitectura e Ingeniería, Institución Universitaria Colegio Mayor de Antioquia, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
• ²⁶ European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, United Kingdom
• ²⁷ Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Stratosphere (IEK–7), Jülich, Germany
• ²⁸ Center for Advanced Simulation and Analytics (CASA), Jülich, Germany
• ²⁹ Geology and Sustainable Mining Institute (GSMI), Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
• ³⁰ Univ Lyon, ENTPE, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, CNRS, LTDS, UMR 5513, Vaulx-en-Velin, France
• ³¹ Green Energy Park (UM6P and IRESEN), Benguerir, Morocco
• ³² Climate Change Research Laboratory (CCRL), National Institute of Cartography, Yaounde, Cameroon
• ³³ Département de Géographie, Montreal University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• ³⁴ IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center, Nairobi, Kenya
• ³⁵ National Institute of Cartography, Yaounde, Cameroon
• ³⁶ Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• ³⁷ College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States
• ³⁸ Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL), Paris, Île-de-France, France
• ³⁹ Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement (IRD), Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
• ⁴⁰ Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Husbands, Barbados
• ⁴¹ Department of Architecture and Planning, National Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, Bihar, India
• ⁴² Research Center for Climate Sciences (RCCS), Pusan National University, Busan, Busan, Republic of Korea
• ⁴³ MANCOSA (Honoris Universities), Durban, South Africa
• ⁴⁴ Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
• ⁴⁵ Laboratory for Environmental Modeling and Atmospheric Physics (LEMAP), University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
• ⁴⁶ Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina
• ⁴⁷ International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Dakar, Senegal
• ⁴⁸ Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin
• ⁴⁹ WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use), Accra, Ghana
• ⁵⁰ Environmental Science, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
• ⁵¹ Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, School of Natural Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

This paper reflects the discussions of early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) during the World Climate Research Programme Open Science Conference 2023 EMCRs Symposium, to advance climate knowledge for greater transformative power in society and impact on policy-making. These discussions focused on three key priority challenges: how to produce robust, usable, and used climate information at the local scale; how to address key climate research and knowledge gaps in the Global South; and how EMCRs could support policy-making with climate information. We present here our perspective on these major challenges, possible ways to address them, and what could be the contribution of EMCRs. In addition, we provide recommendations for actions that could be taken at the international and national levels to increase the voice and leadership of Global South researchers and EMCRs in international scientific endeavors. These recommendations might facilitate the integration of new technological tools or innovative approaches, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and foster connections with local communities. This coordinated approach to international, regional and local initiatives will catalyze the process for urgent action on the environmental crisis before us.