News
Open for review: 2010 Update of the GCOS Implementation Plan in support of the UNFCCC
The draft 2010 Update of the Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC has been prepared in response to a call by the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice (30th session, Bonn, June 2009). It updates a similarly-titled 2004 Plan in the light of progress made in science and technology, the increasing focus on adaptation, the demand to optimize mitigation measures, and other evolving requirements on systematic observation of the climate system.
The purpose of the Plan is to provide an updated set of actions required to implement and maintain a comprehensive global observing system for climate with all its components that will address the commitments and support the needs of Parties to the UNFCCC under Articles 4 and 5.
Provisional estimates of the costs for undertaking the recommended Actions in this Plan have been made, including rough estimates of needed expenditure by developed countries and expenditure needed in developing countries.
The GCOS Steering Committee at its 17th session (October 2009) endorsed the release of this draft for submission to the UNFCCC secretariat and for open review. Subsequently, the draft was sent to the UNFCCC secretariat on 28 October, for consideration by Parties at COP 15 in Copenhagen.
Please send your comments to this draft report by 31 January 2010 to GCOSJPO@wmo.int .
GCOS Progress Report 2004 - 2008 released
The final Progress Report on the Implementation of the Global Observing System for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC 2004-2008 has been released. Based on performance reports of all GCOS component systems, national reports on systematic observation for climate, expert advice and an open review by the community, the Report provides an assessment of progress since 2004 in maintaining, strengthening, or otherwise facilitating global observations of the climate system for the purposes of the UNFCCC. It is based on the 131 Actions called for in the 2004 "GCOS Implementation Plan" (GCOS-92). The Report concludes that implementation of the various observing systems in support of the UNFCCC has progressed significantly over the last five years but that sustaining the funding of many important systems is fragile. There has been only limited progress in filling observing system gaps in developing countries.
Parties to the UNFCCC have drawn important conclusions based on the findings of the Report at the 30th session of SBSTA in June 2009 (http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/sbsta/eng/l06.pdf ).
They also drafted a decision on systematic observation for climate, for consideration by COP 15 in Copenhagen later this year (http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/sbsta/eng/l06a01.pdf ).
A synthesis of national reports on systematic observation that were used for the Progress Report is also available (GCOS-130).
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GCOS newsletter
The following GCOS reports have been published recently:
| Report of the Seventeenth Session of the WMO-IOC-UNEP-ICSU Steering Committee for GCOS - Paris, France, 27-30 October 2009 | GCOS-137 |  PDF |
| GCOS Annual Report 2008-2009, December 2009 | GCOS-136 | PDF |
| Report of the Fourth GTN-H Coordination Panel Meeting, New York City, New York, USA, 7-10 July 2009 | GCOS-135 | PDF |
| GRUAN Implementation Plan 2009-2013, July 2009 | GCOS-134 | PDF |
Summary Report of the Eleventh Session of the GTOS/GCOS Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC), Ispra, Italy , 29-30 Oct 2008 |
GCOS-133 | PDF |
Fifteenth Session of the GCOS/WCRP Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate (AOPC) - Conclusions and Recommendations, Geneva, Switzerland , 27-30 April 2009 |
GCOS-132 | PDF |
| Report of the First GCOS Reference Upper Air Network Implementation and Coordination Meeting (GRUAN ICM-1), Norman, Oklahoma, USA, 2-4 March 2009 | GCOS-131 | PDF |
| Synthesis of National Reports on Systematic Observation for Climate - August, 2009 | GCOS-130 | PDF |
| Progress Report on the Implementation of the Global Observing System for Climate in support of the UNFCCC 2004-2008 - August, 2009 | GCOS-129 | PDF |
| Guideline for the Generation of Satellite-based Datasets and Products meeting GCOS Requirements, March 2009 | GCOS 128 | PDF |
| Practical Help for Compiling CLIMAT Reports | GCOS-127 | PDF EnglishPDF FrançaisPDF
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