During 21-22 November 2023 the Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC; https://www.acccflagship.fi) and Finnish Atmospheric Science Network (FASN; https://www.helsinki.fi/en/inar/finnish-atmospheric-science-network) Science Conference (https://sites.uef.fi/aerosol/accc) took place in Kuopio, Finland. This event is aimed to increase interaction and collaboration across different research groups working on atmosphere and ecosystem related topics. The organizers are the University of Eastern Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Tampere University, and University of Helsinki. More than 100 persons from different Universities and research organizations attended the event.

The Conference programme (https://sites.uef.fi/aerosol/accc/programme) included a series of short oral talks (more than 20) divided in sessions on (i) Quantifying and activating the potential of land-based climate change mitigation, (ii) Climate change impact, (iii) Quantifying the air quality – climate interactions and their impacts, and (iv) Other topics. The invited talks (4 plenaries) on – Peatland restoration as a nature-based solution to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss; Are we in the same boat? Impacts of climate change and climate action are not distributed evenly; Atmospheric aerosols as an example of the benefits of addressing climate and air quality together; Aerosol formation in a changing climate: recent results and future directions – were also delivered. The poster session (with about 100 posters) was arranged on 22nd November.

The Erasmus+ CLUVEX project (overview oral and poster presentations) was promoted at the Conference. Detailed plans and design for autumn 2023 – spring 2024 were presented as well as Climate University online courses including invitation for interested persons to join the CLUVEX activities, and in particular, (i) to educate yourself as a Virtual Exchange (VE) moderator; (ii) to participate in the development of the methods and concept of VE; and (iii) to participate in VE as a student and became a Climate Messenger.

Abstract Book of the ACCC-FASN Science Conference 2023 has been published by the Finnish Association for Aerosol Research (FAAR; http://www.faar.fi) in the Report Series in Aerosol Sciences No. 271 (see abstracts http://www.faar.fi/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ACCC_FASN_abstract_book-compressed.pdf).

Text by Hanna K. Lappalainen, Alexander Mahura (Univ Helsinki, INAR)