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Feature article

28 February 2007

What is PI-GCOS?

Dr Mark Morrisey* and Howard Diamond#

The Pacific Islands-Global Climate Observing System (PI-GCOS) programme started in Apia, Samoa, in 2000 as a result of the first regional Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) workshop organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the international GCOS Secretariat. It is a sub-programme of the GCOS aimed specifically at meeting the observing needs of Pacific Islands. Since the Apia workshop, a number of activities have been completed. These include establishment of the PI-GCOS steering group, development of the PI-GCOS Action Plan (see Box 1) and appointment of a full-time PI-GCOS coordinator based in SPREP. At the international level, eight GCOS workshops have been held in other regions of the world, and according to observers, the Apia workshop is considered the most successful. This success is mainly attributed to the dedicated efforts of all stakeholders involved in the PI-GCOS programme to date.

Recent activities include the establishment of a Regional Committee (RC) which serves as the PI-GCOS steering group. Mr. Arona Ngari, the Director of the Cook Islands’ National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS) was selected as the interim chair. The role of the RC is to guide the implementation of the PI-GCOS Action Plan and act as an advisory group to the PI-GCOS Coordinator.

One of the issues that was identified early during the consultation among PI-GCOS collaborating partners, is the need to build capacity of individual Pacific Islands NMHS if the goals of the PI-GCOS Action Plan are to be met. The first step in this direction was the establishment of the RC with the majority of its members being representatives of Pacific Islands NMHS. This is a reflection of the realisation that the PI-GCOS can be successful only if it is owned and primarily driven by the Pacific people themselves, as they will ultimately benefit from the programme.

The PI-GCOS programme was recently showcased at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP10) held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 6-17 December 2004 with great success. The PI-GCOS programme success was touted as a good model for other regions, particularly in relation to the cooperative partnership between developing and developed countries of the region, along with the key central roles that organisations such as SPREP and South Pacific Applied Geosciences Commission (SOPAC) have played to further the goals of PI-GCOS.

For more information on PI-GCOS please consult the programme web site at http://pi-gcos.org.

* PI-GCOS Coordinator, South Pacific Regional Environmental Program, Samoa
# U.S. GCOS National Coordinator, NOAA/National Climatic Data Center, Pacific Island Global Climate Observing System (PI-GCOS)

Goals of the PI-GCOS Action Plan

  1. To continually advocate the importance of GCOS observing systems to policy applications on the part of national governments and other interested users (e.g. social, cultural and economic implications).
  2. To fully support and operate ALL identified GCOS stations (e.g. Global Surface Networks (GSN), Global Terrestrial Observing Systems (GTOS), Global Upper Air Networks (GUAN) etc) in the region by 2005 and according to best practices by 2008.
  3. To work with the Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate to re-examine the spatial-distribution, criteria and coverage of GSN and GUAN stations in the region by 2003 and adjust networks as appropriate by 2005.
  4. To respond to the September 1999 World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) request for the provision of historical GSN and GUAN (when requested), metadata and data by 2003, to rescue all existing climate data for the region by 2005 and fully archive quality controlled climate data in digital form for the Pacific region by 2008.
  5. To establish a permanent GCOS infrastructure by the end of 2002 with professional capacity within the region as appropriate (e.g. National GCOS Coordinator, Regional or National Climate Centres, etc).