Implementation of Competencies in Climate Services

The WMO Strategic Plan 2024 – 2027 adopted by the World Meteorological Congress in June 2023 called for WMO to develop and sustain competencies and expertise needed to provide weather, climate, hydrological, and related environmental services in many countries and territories.

A Regional Workshop for the Implementation of Competencies in Climate Services was delivered in Bahrain in January 2024. 24 participants from 18 countries attended the regional event, representing the WMO Regional Association II (Asia):

• Afghanistan,
• Bahrain,
• Bangladesh,
• Bhutan,
• China,
• India,
• Kazakhstan,
• Kuwait,
• Lao,
• Maldives,
• Mongolia,
• Nepal,
• Oman,
• Pakistan,
• Qatar,
• Saudi Arabia,
• Sri Lanka and
• Thailand. 

The workshop addressed the core competencies for the provision of climate services (creation and management of climate datasets, development of products from climate data, climate forecasts interpretation, communication of climatological information to users). Specific workshop sessions focused on the role of climate services in supporting National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) climate policy and finance mobilization with authoritative scientific information.

This workshop was jointly organized by the WMO Education and Training Office (ETR) and the Climate Services Branch and co-hosted by the Bahrain Meteorological Directorate and the WMO Regional Office for the Arab Region.

Hydrological and Meteorological Service (DHMZ) of Croatia obtains International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Certification of Climate Services

The WMO Climate Services Branch assisted a twinning project between the Bureau of Meteorology of Australia (BoM) and Hydrological and Meteorological Service (DHMZ) of Croatia, with the objective of auditing DHMZ quality management system (QMS) in climate services. The scope of this QMS ISO certificate in climate services, is “processing, control, archiving and distribution of data and development of climate databases and applications, climate modeling, climate change monitoring and biometeorology”.
The auditing process undertaken by external auditors and an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) affiliated company took nine months. The certificate was awarded to DHMZ during a high-level governmental ceremony on World Meteorological Day.