Climate observations are of fundamental importance for reconstructing, monitoring, understanding, attributing, predicting, projecting, mitigating and adapting to climate change. They are crucial for the assessment and implementation of policies, such as those of the IPCC and the 2015 Paris Agreement. The need for systematic climate observations is increasing with the growing urgency of adaptation and mitigation measures, which may require high-resolution information. It is therefore crucial to make further progress towards achieving a fully implemented and sustainable global observing system for climate applications.
The second GCOS Climate Observation Conference, to be held from 17 to 19 October 2022 in Darmstadt, Germany, will focus on activities and solutions that contribute to a fully implemented, sustainable and responsive global climate observing system. The conference will also be an opportunity to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GCOS and to take stock of the progress made by the global observing community over the last three decades.
Since 1992, GCOS has been a responsible programme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), providing guidance for a sustainable, long-term and reliable global climate monitoring system. GCOS defines the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), knowledge of which is essential to our understanding of climate: GCOS provides requirements for each ECV, monitors the quality of their observation and proposes solutions to any problems identified. Space-based and in situ observations are the main contributors to global climate observations. Long time series with historical observational data well distributed over the globe are required. A wide range of organisations monitor the climate in different ways, covering different groups of variables and regions. Globally, this requires substantial effort and collaboration at all levels, including international organisations, national agencies and scientific communities with a variety of components covering the atmosphere, oceans, land, cryosphere and biosphere. GCOS does not make observations as such, but responds to the information needs of different stakeholders: policy makers (e.g. UNFCCC, nations and adaptation and mitigation planners), scientific assessments (e.g. IPCC, universities and WCRP), networks and coordinating bodies (e.g. WMO, NMHS, GOOS).
Substantial progress has been made in many areas of the Earth's climate observing system since the publication of the 2016 GCOS Implementation Plan. This progress has been assessed and described in the GCOS 2021 Progress Report. GCOS has now developed a number of strategic priority areas for activities in the coming years, and these form the thematic basis of the new GCOS Implementation Plan (2022) which is currently being drafted. The GCOS Implementation Plan will be subject to public review in May 2022 and will be finalised in July 2022.