Advancing Climate Service Quality and Standardization: WMO Contributions to Climateurope2
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) continues to play a key role in advancing the quality, consistency, and standardisation of climate services through its engagement in the Climateurope2 initiative.
Climateurope2 is a 4.5-year Horizon Europe initiative led by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, dedicated to advancing equitable, quality-assured climate services that support adaptation and mitigation across sectors. By promoting standardization, strengthening collaboration, and enhancing usability, the project plays a critical role in ensuring that climate services remain credible, accessible, and impactful in Europe and beyond.
On 15 January, a workshop convened under the project brought together staff from over 20 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) from across Europe, alongside representatives from other WMO Regions, to exchange experiences and discuss practical pathways toward strengthening climate service quality and standardization. The discussions highlighted both the growing demand for harmonized approaches and the persistent challenges in aligning operational practices with emerging standards.
The technical contributions of WMO to Climateurope2 are reflected in two key deliverables: Deliverable 2.6 and Deliverable 2.9, which together provide a comprehensive framework for improving data management, quality assurance, and service credibility across the climate services value chain.
Deliverable 2.6 establishes a coherent set of guidelines for good practices in vocabularies, data formats, metadata, licensing, and software management, aligned with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Rather than introducing new standards, it consolidates widely adopted community practices, including WMO frameworks, Climate and Forecast conventions, and FAIR for Research Software principles, into actionable guidance tailored to climate services. Key recommendations include the use of standardised metadata, interoperable formats such as NetCDF and Zarr, clear licensing frameworks, persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs), and lifecycle-oriented software management. The report also emphasises the importance of regulatory alignment, including frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU AI Act, and Accessibility Act, alongside the use of Data Management Plans as living governance tools.
Building on this foundation, Deliverable 2.9 focuses on verification, certification, and quality management. The recommendations align closely with existing WMO guidance, including the Guidelines on Quality Management in Climate Services (WMO-No. 1221), while further strengthening their operational application. Core recommendations include:
- Embedding Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) across the full climate service lifecycle
- Promoting certification as a mechanism for trust and transparency
- Ensuring clear and transparent communication of quality information
- Establishing robust feedback loops and support lifecycles
These recommendations are grounded in an extensive literature review, expert consultations, and targeted surveys of climate service providers. They respond to key community needs, including improved interoperability, harmonised terminology, stronger documentation practices, and clearer pathways toward certification.
The contributions of WMO build on its established normative frameworks, including publications such as WMO-No. 1221, WMO-No. 1238, and the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) Manual (WMO-No. 1160). While these provide a strong foundation for quality assurance and interoperability, practical challenges remain, particularly in the application of complex standards and the need for enhanced technical capacity across institutions.
Looking ahead, WMO will continue its active engagement in Climateurope2, including participation in the upcoming Webstival (15–17 April), where it will contribute to a session on agriculture and food security.