Climate scenarios are vital for the future development of societies and the political decision makers representing them. Systematic observations of essential climate variables are a critical foundation to assess potential risks of climate change and to develop adaptation strategies. Improvements of climate observing systems are particularly important for developing countries, many of which are currently underrepresented in GCOS. Reducing spatial gaps in observations helps to improve global climate models and -- importantly -- to assess climate scenarios in developing countries more accurately.
Photo: J. Klausen
Since 2002, the GCOS Cooperation Mechanism (GCM) has striven to support improvements of climate observations. Capacity building and twinning projects are primarily aimed at the increase of scientific and technical expertise in developing.
Switzerland has recently intensified its efforts to fill spatial gaps in global climate observations: Two atmospheric stations in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Harare (Zimbabwe) have been reactivated with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) from 2008-2009. Within the GAW programme, MeteoSwiss supports ozone and other trace gas measurements in Kenya, Indonesia and Algeria.
Photo: J. Klausen |
Photo: F. Mauchle |
Photo: J. Klausen |
In future, the Swiss GCOS Office will support other capacity building and twinning projects. During 2011-2013, the project CATCOS (Capacity Building and Twinning for Climate Observing Systems) will benefit atmospheric observations in Indonesia, Vietnam and Chile and glacier monitoring in Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador and Colombia. The project is financed by SDC and coordinated by MeteoSwiss.
Supported projects
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Photo: J. Klausen |
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