RELATED ONGOING WORK
Examples in alphabetical order

• Examples of relevant action by Parties include a project in Mali to promote the use by farmers of meteorological information in planning and managing agricultural activities and the work by the Drought/Environment Monitoring and Early Warning Centre and Flood Forecasting Divisions in Pakistan (FCCC/SBSTA/2008/3. Many other examples of action by Parties on data and observations are found in FCCC/SBSTA/2007/MISC.23)

• The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), a Centre of Excellence providing forecasts, climate change policy advice and guidelines to the Caribbean Community Member States, has undertaken several adaptation projects which include strengthening the climate impacts-monitoring network and generating climate projection scenarios.  http://www.caricom.org/jsp/community/ccccc.jsp?menu=community

• The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) is working jointly with the WCRP and WMO on a proposal for a programme of three interlinked regional workshops to address the need for regional observations and climate modelling in support of adaptation.  These workshops would assess, among other things, the adequacy of regional observations and models and provide advice on how model outputs could best be used to develop adaptation strategies. A pilot project on climate observations and regional modelling in support of climate risk management and sustainable development is under way for the Eastern African region, with the aim of enhancing regional capacity in the use of data and model projections, including understanding of limitations, for adaptation planning. http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/index.php?name=unfccc

• FAO’s Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) is a programme for observation, modelling and analysis of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development, facilitating access to information on terrestrial ecosystems; cooperation between exsiting initiatives; and promoting the harmonization of measurement methods and data processing. Four expert groups on coastal, climate, terrestrial carbon, and forest and land cover dynamics aim to promote regional and global datasets and facilitate the synthesis of globally consistent data. They also contribute to the identification of key variables for the Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites database. http://www.fao.org/gtos

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Data Distribution Centre (DDC) offers access to baseline and scenario data for representing the evolution of climatic, socio-economic and other environmental conditions, and offers guidance on its application for impacts, vulnerability and adaptation assessments. Further guidance concerning sea level scenarios, socio-economic scenarios, and the analysis of observed impacts is expected to be produced in the near future. http://www.ipcc-data.org The DDC is coordinated by the Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impact and Climate Analysis (TGICA), which also identifies information needs in support of IPCC work, facilitates research on climate impacts, adaptation, and mitigation, and makes related recommendations on cross-cutting issue. http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1_tgica.html

• The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) collects long-term socioeconomic and biophyisical data in Northern, Western and Eastern Africa. http://www.oss-online.org

• The global System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) activities on climate change data and observations include the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG), which is developing a database of long-term weather observations across sub-Saharan Africa, and the Temperate East Asia START Regional Center (TEA-START), which maintains climatological data for the monsoon Asia region. Efforts on capacity improvement include the Assessment of Impacts and Adaptation to Climate Change (AIACC) and work with NASA to facilitate the participation of developing country scientists in the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC/GOLD) project. http://www.start.org/Program/vuladap.html

• The Water Centre for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) maintains the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System with support from NASA and USAID, on forest fires, disaster management and adaptation planning. http://www.cathalac.org

• The joint CCI/CLIVAR/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI), part of the World Climate Research Programme (WRCP), provides practical guidance on the homogenization of climate data, and helps organize collaboration on climate change detection and indices and encouraging the comparison of modelled data and observations. http://cccma.seos.uvic.ca/ETCCDI

• World Meteorological Organization (WMO) action includes data rescue activities, annual statements on the status of global climate, the World Weather Watch System and regional weather watch, and making IPCC Model Data “backbone” publicly available. The WMO is also engaged in dissemination of software to SIDS and LDCs to assist in reporting to UNFCCC and IPCC and building capacity of LDCs and SIDS to use IPCC model data. http://www.wmo.ch/pages/themes/WMO_climatechange_en.html