WMO hosts workshop on Global Greenhouse Gas Watch observing system

The World Meteorological Congress approved the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch in May 2023 in view of the increasing urgency of climate change mitigation. It aims to fill critical information gaps and provide an integrated, operational framework which brings under one roof all space-based and surface-based observing systems, as well as modelling and data assimilation capabilities.

Most of the existing international and national activities are currently undertaken by the research community and supported  by  research funding. At present, there is no comprehensive, routine and timely international exchange of surface and space-based greenhouse gas observations or modelling products.

International workshop on the development of a comprehensive integrated global observing system

WMO

The three-day workshop “Observations within the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch,” brought together more than 200 experts from the public and private sectors and academia on 3-5 October.

“Many of the participants highlighted WMO’s long-standing World Weather Watch as a model to follow, and the participants were particularly interested in the opportunity to significantly strengthen the greenhouse gas observing networks both on land and over the ocean through international coordination,” said Lars Peter Riishojgaard, Deputy Director of WMO Infrastructure Department.

“The engagement of so many internationally recognized scientists as well as some of the world’s premier global greenhouse gas flux estimation capabilities in the planning of the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch is extremely encouraging. The community clearly recognizes the role of strengthened international collaboration and coordination in enabling it to provide a stronger and more clearly articulated message to the UNFCCC Parties and other stakeholders,” he said.

The workshop on 3-5 October on “Observations within the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch” issued recommendations regarding the design of the integrated observing system, gap analysis of the existing capabilities and recommendations on the ways to leverage those, and prioritization of the actions for implementation.

Topics addressed included:

• Taking stock of the existing observing systems for atmospheric, ocean and biosphere measurements of greenhouse gases and their fluxes from ground/earth surface and space,
• Integration of observations from different platforms within each domain and across Earth System domains,
• Common approaches to Quality Assurance and Quality control including calibration and uncertainty characterization,
•  Metadata standards,
• International data exchange,
• Needs for capacity development in observations,
•  Sustainability of the observing system.

The Global Greenhouse Gas Watch builds on WMO’s experience in coordinating international collaboration in weather prediction and climate analysis and on long-standing activities in greenhouse gas monitoring and research under the auspices of the Global Atmosphere Watch established in 1989 and its Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System.

A series of stakeholder meetings have taken place as momentum builds.

The EU-funded Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), implemented by ECMWF, hosted a meeting last month to bring different organisations involved in monitoring greenhouse gases together and to develop common standards for exchanging data and comparing products.

Thus, data from different organisations, such as ECMWF/CAMS, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Chinese Meteorological Administration will have to be made comparable.

“CAMS is an active player in this field as it monitors and forecasts global levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations as well as net fluxes of those gases into the atmosphere,” says the Director of CAMS, Vincent-Henri Peuch. “So we’ll have a role to play in the WMO initiative.”