Governance of the World Climate Research Programme
- The International Science Council (ISC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO jointly sponsor the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).
- A group of 18 eminent scientists was chosen by WCRP’s sponsors to serve the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee, which provides the organization with scientific and strategic direction (JSC).
- The WCRP “Joint Planning Staff,” or JPS, is a group of about eight full-time employees who work in the WCRP Secretariat, which is housed by WMO in Geneva, Switzerland, and support both the implementation of JSC recommendations and daily WCRP operations.
- Many of the WCRP’s projects, like its Core Projects, have their own Scientific Steering Groups and auxiliary Secretariats.
- The JSC meets annually, the three sponsors of WCRP hold annual meetings of their constituting bodies, and regular publications are posted on the WCRP homepage.
World Climate Research Programme
The World Climate Research Programme was created in 1980 to make it easier to analyze and predict the variability and change of the Earth system for use in a growing number of real-world applications that are directly relevant, advantageous, and valuable to society. Over the past 30+ years, WCRP has significantly advanced climate research. Because of the work of the WCRP, climate scientists are now able to monitor, model, and project the global climate with unprecedented accuracy. They can also supply climate data for use in governance, decision-making, and a variety of useful end-user applications.