14 April 2014: The UNFCCC Secretariat has released a note containing summary information on enhanced availability and visibility of scientific information relevant to the Convention on the UNFCCC website (FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.5).

The note was prepared further to the mandate from the 38th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), which noted that the availability and visibility of scientific information relevant to the needs of the Convention on the UNFCCC website has been enhanced, and requested the secretariat to provide a summary report on that work and to make it available for consideration at SBSTA 40.

The document provides an overview of the actions undertaken by the secretariat to enhance the availability and visibility of scientific information relevant to the Convention on the UNFCCC website, in particular by providing a detailed description and analysis of the use of the redesigned webpage on science, research and systematic observation. It also describes other online tools used by the secretariat to disseminate information on climate science in a non-technical way, namely the subsection on ‘science’ under the ‘essential background’ section of the UNFCCC website, the UNFCCC e-Newsletter and press releases, and an infographic on climate science released as part of the webpage dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Convention.

The note underlines that the review of the traffic on the various pages of the UNFCCC website that address climate science shows that the redesign of the science webpage has had a limited effect on the number of visitors. Similar to the UNFCCC website in general, the webpages receive the greatest amount of traffic around and during the sessional periods of the year. Furthermore, the statistics indicate that scientific information reaches a wider audience when disseminated through the UNFCCC e-Newsletter than when displayed on the regular webpages dedicated to science.

The note concludes with an outline of possible next steps that could be taken to further enhance the availability and visibility of scientific information on the UNFCCC website.

At its 40th session, scheduled to take place in June 2014, the SBSTA may wish to consider the information contained in the note as part of its consideration of matters related to research and to determine any further action arising therefrom. [Publication: Summary Information on Enhanced Availability and Visibility of Scientific Information Relevant to the Convention on the UNFCCC Website]