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Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General, WMO
Foreword
Climate change is accelerating and leading to climate and weather extremes of the greatest socioeconomic
and developmental consequences around the world. This is particularly true for those regions, countries and
communities that are most climate-vulnerable: the African continent, least developed and land-locked countries
and small island developing states.
The 2001–2010 decade was the warmest ever recorded, with an average temperature of 0.21° C above 1991–
2000, the warmest decade of the twentieth century, and of 0.46° C above the 1961–1990 annual average of 14° C.
The decade witnessed the intensification of climate and weather extremes such as destructive flooding, severe
droughts, heat waves, heavy rainfall and severe storms, as well as a dramatic steady reduction of the Arctic sea ice
summer cover. The concentration of CO
2
in the atmosphere continued to increase, reaching an average of 389
parts per million, the highest value ever recorded. All these trends were confirmed in 2011 and 2012.
The Rio+20 summit held in June 2012 reaffirmed that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our
time to the attainment of sustainable development and called for reinforced international cooperation to address
its impacts. Besides weather and water extremes these include sea level rise, coastal erosion and ocean acidification
and make adaptation to climate change an urgent necessity.
As highlighted by the World Meteorological Day celebrated on 23 March 2012, weather, climate and water
services are of growing importance for the sustainable socioeconomic development of present and future
generations. Advancing knowledge about weather, climate and water is crucial to agriculture and food security,
disaster risk reduction, water management, health and many other sectors and will play a crucial role in shaping
the global developmental agenda beyond 2015.
The risks of climate variability and change and adaptation to climate change can be better understood and managed
only through the development and application of the science and knowledge of climate information and prediction.
The Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), initiated at the World Climate Conference-3 (Geneva, Switzerland,
2009), is a major initiative of the United Nations system led by WMO to foster the enhancement and incorporation of
climate information and prediction into planning, policy and practice on the global, regional, national and local scales.
The GFCS is conceived to advance global collaboration through multidisciplinary partnerships, improved governance,
climate observations, monitoring, research and prediction. Together with capacity-building and exchange of experiences,
this will ensure greater availability of, access to, and use of climate services for all countries and in particular enable the
most vulnerable in order to limit the impact of, or adapt to, climate change and variability.
In order for the GFCS to achieve its goals, it will have to be user-driven, building on the successes and learning
from the challenges of existing initiatives. Most particularly, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services
will have to build on capabilities, facilitating data sharing and thereby demonstrating the benefits of cooperative
and multidisciplinary products.
Better climate services through improved quality, accuracy, timeliness, location specificity and user-friendliness
of the information will facilitate key societal benefits. These include a reduction in the losses of life and property
associated with climate-related natural hazards, enhanced productivity in sectors reliant on climate and a more
efficient management of institutions dependent on weather and climate.
After
Elements for Life
(2007) and
Climate Sense
(2009), the World
Meteorological Organization and Tudor Rose partner again with
Climate
ExChange
. I am confident that this publication will provide a great contribution
to illustrate the benefits of, and promote good practices in, climate services.
I wish to thank the over 100 contributing authors who described progresses and
challenges in the production and delivery of climate services in priority areas such as
water management, agriculture and food security, disaster risk reduction and health.
These contributions reflect how people and nations around the world are using or can
use climate information to improve their lives and economies in a sustainable way.
Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General, WMO
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