Climate Sense

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General, WMO

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General, UnESCO

Foreword

Over the past 30 years, significant progress has been made in observing, understanding and to some extent predicting the variability

and changes in Earth’s climate system. This progress was made possible by a remarkable international cooperation. Climate

variability and change pose many major challenges, and the debate surrounding climate issues illustrates the difficulty of transforming

knowledge into appropriate actions transcending beyond any single nation, as required to respond effectively to these challenges.

There is now an overwhelming consensus that human activities have been affecting the composition of Earth’s atmosphere,

significantly altering our environment. These changes, together with the natural variability of the climate system, are affecting

every socioeconomic sector. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the frequency and intensity of a number of extreme events such as

floods, droughts and heat waves are very likely to increase in the next decades. These changes and their effects will be felt at the

global, regional and local levels, and they will impact water resources, global agriculture and food security, energy and transport

systems, marine and terrestrial ecosystems and the services we derive from them – to give just a few examples.

By bringing together perspectives from the various stakeholders, from fundamental science to customized services, at the

international, regional, national and local levels,

Climate Sense

provides an invaluable view of the progress and challenges

for responding to climate variability and change. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are pleased to co-lead this collaborative effort to advance the

climate observations, research and assessments necessary for informed decision- and policy-making by public authorities and civil

society – and in this way improve world security and sustainability.

To translate the scientific understanding of climate system for policy-makers, nations have together established global observing and

information systems, mandating their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, as well as their marine and ocean institutions,

to play a critical role in collecting relevant data and making this basic information available worldwide. As a result of such efforts climate

research programmes like the WMO/UNESCO/International Council for Science (ICSU) co-sponsored World Climate Research

Programme (WCRP), as well as intergovernmental bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – which was

awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 – have come into existence. As part of the UN-wide effort to unify delivery on climate change,

UNESCO and WMO have been given the responsibility to lead in the cross-cutting area of climate knowledge. These efforts have

provided policy- and decision-makers with an up-to-date scientific understanding of climate variability and change.

The personal statements and papers presented in this publication,

Climate Sense

, convey the richness, the level of commitment,

and the good will and cooperation that exist today to take on this multi-generational challenge and to respond to it most effectively.

The publishing of this unique book on the occasion of World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3), from 31 August to 4 September

2009, serves as a reminder of the importance of climate adaptation as a necessary strategy to cope with climate variability and

change. Organized by WMO, WCC-3 will create a global framework for climate services, providing society with the information

and the tools for managing risks and seizing opportunities generated by the climate. Through its sharing of best practices across a

variety of disciplines and sectors,

Climate Sense

is a unique resource for advancing the framework.

We thank Tudor Rose for publishing

Climate Sense

, and appreciate the work of all those who contributed to this publication.

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General, WMO

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO

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