The Meeting of National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS) Directors on Advanced Climate Services in the Asia/Pacific Region was held in Tokyo from 8 to 9 July 2002, attended by directors or representatives from eight NMHSs and two international organizations.
The objective of this Meeting was to discuss the commitment to be made by NMHSs and the requirements for the international cooperation in order to mitigate damages caused by extreme climate-related events and to realize the sustainable development.
The participants adopted the statement as a result of the Meeting.
| Country | Name | Country | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| WMO | Dr. Buruhani Nyenzi | WMO (IPCC) | Dr. Geoffrey Love |
| Australia | Dr. Robert Brook | Bahrain | Mr. Nader Ahmed |
| China | Dr. Zheng Guoguang | Republic of Korea | Dr. Kyung-Sup Shin |
| Malaysia | Dr. Chow Kok Kee | Mongolia | Dr. Damdin Dagvadorj |
| USA | Mr. Ralph Jeffrey LaDouse | Japan | Mr. Koji Yamamoto |
| Japan | Dr. Tomoyuki Ito | Japan | Dr. Yasuo Tatsumi |
| Japan | Dr. Masaro Saiki | Japan | Mr. Masato Sugi |
The Meeting of National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS) Directors on Advanced Climate Services in the Asia/Pacific Region was held in Tokyo from 8 to 9 July 2002, attended by directors or representatives from eight NMHSs and two international organizations. At the meeting, participants adopted the following statement to facilitate advanced climate services by the NMHSs and international cooperation for their realization.
1. In recent years, loss of human lives and damage to property caused by natural disaster have increased throughout the world. There is concern that the frequency of severe events such as typhoons, floods, wild fires, dust storms and drought may be affected by climate change. Therefore, climate information plays an increasingly important role in the protection of life and property and the development of socio-economic activities.
2. The recent marked scientific and technological progresses have led to the enhanced performance of seasonal to interannual (SI) forecasts, probabilistic SI forecasts, and efficient information technology (IT)-driven provision of climate information, particularly prediction products. It has now become possible to provide the advanced climate services which are necessary for policy makers and other users to develop and implement effective plans in various fields.
3. It is an important mission for each NMHS to provide appropriate climate information and to promote its utilization. Particularly, NMHSs, which are responsible for the observations, analyses and predictions of weather and climate of the country, should issue early advice of the increased likelihood of natural disasters to facilitate mitigation activities.
4. NMHSs can and should contribute to sustainable development by providing advanced climate services to enable early and efficient management in a variable and changing climate. In order to realize such services, NMHSs should promote close collaboration with various users including policy makers to share with them a wide range of knowledge and understanding on the needs for the climate information, its technological capabilities, and its effective and appropriate usage.
5. In the Asia/Pacific and other regions, for the purpose of provision of high quality climate services based on advanced science and technology there are pressing requirements for international technical cooperation. This includes the operational exchange of climate data and products, training and capacity building, and technology transfer on climate data management.
6. The Asia/Pacific region is vulnerable to the influences of ENSO, monsoons, and other large scale climate variabilities. The region ranges from tropics to extratropics, from mountainous/arid to small island/low land nations, and the impacts of such phenomena vary from one country to another. Therefore, international frameworks for climate services for the region should ensure the access to the essential products, including climate indices and grid point values of numerical prediction models, to be applied for various purposes, and should promote the exchange of the technology to enable such applications. This should support NMHSs in making available climate information tailored to the national users.
7. As a framework for the international cooperation, the concept of the Regional Climate Centers promoted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is considered appropriate and expected to be realized soon to facilitate and advance the climate services in the world. In this context, operational provision of key climate information and capacity building activities, planned to be offered by the Tokyo Climate Center of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the initiative of the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) related to multi-model ensemble forecasting, and other initiatives in the region are seen as important contributions to the international framework to enhance the regional capabilities of climate services.
| Date | Session | Item | Speaker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 July | AM | Opening Session | Welcoming Address | Mr. Koji Yamamoto |
| Address of President of WMO Regional Association II | Mr. Nader Ahmed | |||
| Group photograph | ||||
| Keynote Speech | Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS) | Dr. Buruhani Nyenzi | ||
| WMO Climate activities: How You Can Assist the WMO's Climate Related Programmes |
Dr. Geoffrey Love | |||
| PM | Session 1: Extreme Climate Events and Requirements for Early Warning | An Introduction of Climate Services in China | Dr. Zheng Guoguang | |
| Extreme Climate and Weather Evevnts and Requirements for Early Warning in Mongolia | Dr. Damdin Dagvadorj | |||
| Session 2 Introduction of Advanced Technology to Climate Services and Capacity Building for the Region | Report of Republic of Korea | Dr. Kyung-Sup Shin | ||
| Technical Development and Improvement of Climate Services as JMA | Mr. Masato Sugi | |||
| Climate Services and Capacity Building in the Asia and Pacific Region | Dr. Chow Kok Kee | |||
| Session 3: Contribution of NMHSs to Sustainable Development | Contribution of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services to Sustainable Development | Dr. Robert Brook | ||
| Contribution of NMHSs to Sustainable Development | Mr. Ralph Jeffrey LaDouse | |||
| 9 July | AM | Session 1 (continued) | Extreme Climate and Weather Evevnts and Requirements for Early Warnning | Mr. Nader Ahmed |
| Session 4: Discussion on Regional Cooperation on Climate Services | Outline of Activities of Tokyo Climate Center | Mr. Masato Sugi | ||
| Discussion on International Cooperation for Advanced Climate Services, and Adoption of Meeting Summary | ||||
| Closing | Closing Address | Dr. Tomoyuki Ito | ||