Coordination and increase of synergies among WMO, GEO, GCOS and related initiatives for fostering international climate action

This Action is intended to support the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and its co-sponsored bodies Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), and Group on Earth Observations (GEO) in their common endeavours to strengthen the global system for standardised, open, accessible, usable, and interoperable observations of essential climate variables (ECVs).

As the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and more extreme weather and climate events with higher frequency become more evident, it is important to understand and communicate the nature and scale of the changes in a consistent way. This will become increasingly important in the face of misinformation in a still-contested space.

The expected impacts of this action are:

• to enhance the delivery and usability of data for developing services for the societies and citizens of the world to support their actions to adapt to and mitigate climate change, taking advantage of EU-funded observing systems.
• to support delivery, uptake and exploitation of Earth Observation data, research, products, and operational services, to help achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal and other EU policies.

This action is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• led by WMO, this action will improve the coordination with its related organisations GEO and GCOS, as well as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in order to deliver the expected impacts mentioned above;
• This action should foster the uptake of relevant scientific outputs by high-level climate-related policy processes including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and global initiatives such as the United Nations Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All Initiative;
• promotion of the collection, coherence, and quality assurance of, as well as open and free access to data on climate, climate change and its impacts from global operational and research observational networks;
• supporting the development, improvement, and implementation of climate services as per Article 7 of the Paris Agreement and the Early warnings for All initiative through the improved uptake and exploitation of European climate observation products, knowledge, and services, including in particular Copernicus, European Research Infrastructures, and the ESA Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI), in WMO and GEO initiatives;
• progress the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch (G3W) of WMO and linked activities within the Copernicus Programme;
• advance the integration of climate science and observations into planning and implementation of adaptation strategies and actions;
• facilitate the development of applications of Earth observations and new technology in the prevention and assessment of losses and damages due to climate-related impacts and disasters.

Scope:

This grant will be awarded without a call for proposals according to Article 195(e) of the Financial Regulation and Article 24(3)(b) of the Horizon Europe Regulation to the legal entity identified below.

WMO hosts the GEO, IPCC, and GCOS secretariats – whose activities are crucial for the delivery of climate actions under the European Green Deal – in particular the Horizon Europe Mission on Climate Adaptation.

In order to support the development of a coherent and comprehensive global climate observation systems and related services, the action should analyse, the Work Programmes of WMO, GEO and GCOS in conjunction with the EU Space and R&I programmes, considering also the Copernicus Services, ESA-CCI, the G3W, IPCC assessment reports, as well as GEO work programme activities. Priority should be given to activities related to the state of the climate and atmosphere, science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies, high-impact hydrometeorological extreme events and compounds and their associated loss and damage and measures to avert them, the state of the climate and atmosphere, the emerging Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue in UNFCCC, prevention of land degradation, ecosystems management, biodiversity conservation and nature-based solutions and the United Nations’ Early Warnings for All Initiative.

Further, it should support the coordination, and the creation of synergies, streamlining the contributions to GCOS from the Copernicus Programme, the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative, and the Climate Change engagement priority of GEO (as articulated in the GEO post-2025 Strategy[[ https://earthobservations.org/geo_post25.php]]).

The action should look into EU and international initiatives on data policies, standardisation, and licensing, and assess ways to leverage on those to support the achievement of named outcomes. Towards this end it should conduct a roadmap and horizon scanning exercise on data policies not just at a European level, but internationally, looking into and beyond the existing WMO Unified Data Policy.

By analysing and demonstrating the respective strengths and complementarity of the individual organisations and programmes, the action should identify observation gaps and needs for further research. It should make recommendations as to how future EU R&I work programmes can most productively addresses these gaps and support the development of services to help WMO and EU to achieve its strategic climate related objectives such as those of the Green Deal. This activity should be coordinated with the EU’s Knowledge Centre of Earth Observations (KCEO) and the EuroGEO secretariat.

Based on this analysis, the project should develop an action plan for joint or concerted activities towards achieving the named expected outcomes.

In order to ensure efficient communication, the action should:

• develop a communication and dissemination plan, in collaboration with the respective secretariats mentioned above;
• ensure efficient coordination with GEO event, like the GEO weeks and symposia and other relevant events;
• mobilise action on this plan and the identified research priorities, inter alia through a high-level leadership workshop as a final event of this activity, where decisions and firm commitments are to be taken.

Specific conditions:

• Coordination and support actions: Participation of legal entities established in non-associated third countries as a beneficiary;
• Exceptional funding for legal entities established in countries normally not eligible for funding;
• Mandatory use of Copernicus and Galileo/EGNOS data for projects using satellite-based earth observation, positioning, navigation and/or timing data and services;
• In order to achieve the expected outcomes, the action may provide financial support to third parties (FSTP) in the form of grants, for supporting the evolution of GEO work programme activities or incubators, the development of climate services, or Early warning systems. The specific conditions mentioned above on the mandatory use of Copernicus data will also apply for the FSTP. Given the technical complexity of the tasks the 60 000 EUR threshold provided for in Article 204 (a) of the Financial Regulation No 2018/1046 does not apply, and the maximum amount to be granted to each third party is elevated to EUR 150,000.

Funding Rate: 100%.