24 July 2015: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has announced that the draft 2015 Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Status Report, which assesses the adequacy of the global observing systems for climate, is open for public review. The report will be submitted to GCOS’s sponsoring organizations, as well as Parties to the UNFCCC, who in November 2012 invited the GCOS Secretariat to prepare such an assessment.

The report will be finalized for the 43rd session of the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 43) and the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC, both of which will take place from 30 November – 11 December 2015, in Paris, France.

Noting the importance of COP 21 for future climate policy, the GCOS Secretariat explains that it is important to evaluate whether climate observations are adequately enabling our understanding of, and ability to predict, climate change, which can in turn improve humans’ capacity to adapt.

According to the Secretariat, the report “reviews the overall status of each Essential Climate Variable, assesses progress against the GCOS Implementation Plan and identifies gaps.” The report is divided into seven chapters on: introduction and background; climate observation; overarching and cross-cutting elements; atmospheric observation; oceanic observation; terrestrial observation; and conclusions.

The GCOS Secretariat is inviting a wide range of reviewers to comment on the report as a whole or on parts relevant to the reviewer’s expertise. It notes that all comments will be considered by the authors. The public comment period ends on 7 September 2015. [GCOS Webpage] [Draft 2015 Global Climate Observing System Status Report]