February 2013: The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) has released the first edition of its newsletter for 2013, outlining events of relevance to climate monitoring and recent activities of the programme, including, among other things, discussions at the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on GCOS adequacy and progress reports.

The newsletter covers seven categories of news: scientific highlights; observing domains, networks and measuring systems; sponsoring organizations and partners; GCOS Secretariat; 2013 calendar highlights; upcoming events; and people.

On GCOS’ participation at COP 18, the newsletter indicates that: GCOS participated in several side events, underscoring the importance of partnerships for climate services; GCOS submitted a report on the development of progress on methodologies, standards and protocols for terrestrial and climate-related matters; and GCOS committed to present a new “assessment of progress and adequacy report” in 2015, based on discussions of reporting timelines.

The newsletter further notes that this “Third Adequacy Report” will be followed by a new GCOS Implementation Plan to be published in 2016, and the Report and draft Plan will be submitted to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) at UNFCCC COP 21.

In upcoming events, the newsletter notes two workshops to be held in 2013, on observation for adaptation and on satellite soil moisture validation and application. These workshops, among other things, address the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) identified by GCOS.

GCOS is a joint programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Council for Science (ICSU) that aims to provide comprehensive information on the total climate system. [GCOS Newsletter 1/2013] [GCOS Website]