Climate observing system remains fragile, needs funding: Experts

  • October 29, 2022
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Climate observing system remains fragile, needs funding: Experts

Subject: Geography

Context-

  • Climate observing system remains fragile and needs financing for strengthening and sustaining it, stated a global conference in their declaration.

More on the news-

  • Sustainable and long-term funding is essential to ensure the continuity and expansion of observations, read the declaration released by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)conference on October 19, 2022. But they remain highly inadequate.
  • The status of climate observation systems has not improved much in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia since 2015, according to State of Global Observation Systems, 2021.

About the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)conference-

  • GCOS conference was hosted by Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), from 17-19 October 2022.
    • Operational monitoring of the climate and detection of global climatic changes are the fundamental objectives of EUMETSAT.
  • GCOS is co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC- UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Science Council (ISC).
  • Objectives of GCOS-
    • GCOS expert panels maintain definitions of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) which are required to systematically observe Earth`s changing climate.
    • The observations supported by GCOS contribute to solving challenges in climate research and also underpin climate services and adaptation measures.

GCOS implementation Plan-

  • GCOS Implementation Plan 2022, released by the WMO, also identified gaps in earth observations and areas that require improvement. The plan will be presented at COP27.
    • The 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27, will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 6 -18 November.
  • The conference has announced its commitment to a “comprehensive and sustainable global climate observing system” in light of the rapid pace of climate change.

Need for access to more data on climate-

  • There is a need to focus on improving data quality, availability, accessibility and utility.
  • The conference called for access to climate data through global data repositories.
  • In addition, access to climate data must be made free and open.
Climate observing system remains fragile Geography