Memorandum of Understanding Agenda item 4

MoU PROCESS IN 2013 - 2014 WMO initiated GCOS Program Review in September 2011 Program Review Board agreed in December 2012 Program Review process from February 2013 to April 2014

FORMAL WMO PROCESS - 2014 Status of the approval process : In June 2014, WMO’s Executive Council (EC-66) adopted Resolution 4.4(4) which relates to the “Review of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)”. The Resolution requests the Secretary-General to collaborate with the co-sponsors to implement the recommendations as appropriate; and to inform Cg-17 in May 2015 about the outcome of the implementation of the recommendations, which should be incorporated into the GCOS MoU .

FORMAL WMO PROCESS 2014/2015 In July 2014, a draft of an updated MoU, based on the recommendations of the Review Board had been prepared, legal advice from WMO had been arranged, as well as a consolidation of the view of WMO on the recommendations and on the draft MoU. In May 2015, WMO Congress was informed that the review focused on assessing the added value the GCOS program is giving to the Members of its sponsors and to the closely affiliated Earth Observation Community with respect to climate science research and climate policies.  

FORMAL WMO PROCESS - 2015 WMO Congress (Cg-17, May 2015) noted with appreciation the key outcomes of the review, and commended the GCOS Steering Committee for evolving the programme on the basis of the review, which entails also the evolving explanation of accuracy requirements and the reinforcing to mend the weaknesses in the global observing systems.   In collaboration with the former Chairman of the GCOS Program Review Board, Wolfgang Kusch (former PR of Germany to WMO), a final draft of the MoU had been prepared and this draft had been then sent out to all sponsoring organizations on 27 October 2015.

STATUS – WHERE ARE WE NOW IN 2016 in 2017 The draft had been reviewed internally by WMO and has been cleared by its Legal Office. Final decision to sign by new WMO SG is still pending. At its 115th meeting held at ICSU HQ in Paris, France from 18 to 19 November 2015,  the EB has agreed that a new GCOS MoU was necessary. IOC of UNESCO Executive Council formally approved the GCOS MoU, on 8 June 2016, in Paris. UNEP had been part of an advanced meeting of the new management commitment. The new management will take up on the draft MoU.

Main revisions in the Draft WMO SG prefers use of term partners instead of sponsors Update on program names since 2015, e.g., GTOS needed to be replaced. Regard to partners: bringing in a «particular» focus on partners for climate services Refinement of ToRs for Steering Committee in relation to the new «Engagement» Committee. «Engagement» changed to «Management» Committee to better reflect its objectives. SC = scientific and technological advisory boday MC = platform of the «sponsors» to overview use of resources