The Global Terrestrial Observing System GTOS secretariat submitted, by the twenty-ninth session of the SBSTA, a progress report on the development of standards for each of the essential climate variables in the terrestrial domain. That progress report is contained in FCCC/SBSTA/2008/MISC.12. At its twenty-ninth session, the SBSTA agreed to defer consideration of the mentioned progress report to its thirtieth session. The GTOS secretariat and the sponsoring agencies of the GTOS
have continued their work on the development of the standards for the essential climate variables and on the framework for the preparation of guidance materials, standards and reporting guidelines for terrestrial observations, and prepared an updated and more comprehensive report on this matter. This updated report is included in the present document and provides information which supersedes that contained in document FCCC/SBSTA/2008/MISC.12. In accordance with the procedure for miscellaneous documents, this submission is contained in this document and reproduced in the language in which it was received and without formal editing