The Conference of the Parties (COP), by its decision 11/CP.9, invited the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) secretariat, in conjunction with the Global Ocean Observing System secretariat, to provide information to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), at its twenty-second session, on progress made towards implementing the initial ocean climate observing system. In accordance with the procedure for miscellaneous documents, this document is reproduced in the language in which it was received from the GCOS secretariat and without formal editing