April 2009: The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Secretariat submitted the Progress Report on the Implementation of the GCOS in Support of the UNFCCC 2004-2008 to the UNFCCC Secretariat on 8 April 2009, in response to a request of the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) at its 23rd session held in 2005.

The report addresses progress since late 2004 in implementing the actions intended to maintain, strengthen or otherwise facilitate global observations of the climate system for the purposes of the UNFCCC. The report concludes that implementation of the various observing systems in support of the UNFCCC has progressed significantly over the last five years. At the same time, the report highlights that sustaining the funding of many important systems is fragile and that there has been only limited progress in filling observing system gaps in developing countries. The report notes, therefore, that there is still a long way to go to achieve a fully implemented GCOS.
The GCOS is a joint undertaking of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Council for Science and, in respect of its terrestrial observing components, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The goal of GCOS is to provide comprehensive information on the total climate system, involving a multidisciplinary range of physical, chemical and biological properties, and atmospheric, oceanic, hydrologic, cryospheric and terrestrial processes. [The GCOS progress report]