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27th May 2023 (5 Topics)

World Meteorological Congress approves GHG monitoring initiative

Context

The World Meteorological Congress has approved a new greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring initiative in a landmark decision.

About the new initiative

  • The initiative supports urgent action to reduce heat-trapping gases, which are fuelling temperature increases.
  • The new global GHG watchwill fill critical information gaps and provide an integrated and operational framework.
  • The framework will bring all space-based and surface-based observing systems, as well as modelling and data assimilation capabilities, under one roof.
  • The monitoring infrastructure will build on and expand WMO’s long-standing activities in GHG monitoring, implemented as part of the global atmosphere watchand via its integrated global GHG information system.

Major Components

The GHG watch will consist of four main components:

  • A comprehensive, sustained, global set of surface-based and satellite-based observations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) concentrations, total column amounts, partial column amounts, vertical profiles and fluxes and supporting meteorological, oceanic, and terrestrial variables, internationally exchanged as rapidly as possible, pending capabilities and agreements with the system operators
  • Prior estimates of the GHG emissions based on activity data and process-based models
  • A set of global high-resolution Earth System models representing GHG cycles
  • Associated with the models, data assimilation systems that optimally combine the observations with model calculations to generate products of higher accuracy

Need of the initiative

Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels — in fact higher than at any time over the last 800,000 years

  • Lack of support: Many of the existing international and national activities dealing with greenhouse gases are supported mainly by the research community.
  • Lack of framework: At present, there is no comprehensive, timely international exchange of surface and space-based greenhouse gas observations or modelling products. 

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