Systematic observation of the state of the climate – atmosphere, ocean and land – enables the identification of climate change and associated impacts, and future trends. It is the fundamental basis upon which the UNFCCC was founded, the Paris Agreement was adopted, and decision-making at all levels on climate change mitigation and adaptation depend.

The science community provides the systematic observation data and information to advance scientific research knowledge and support climate services. This large breadth of scientific material is needed to assist governments and stakeholders in developing the urgent strategies and action required to assess, track and ultimately attain the Paris Agreement’s goals in the context of sustainable development.

The Earth Information Day presents the opportunity to optimise engagement and connect information and requirements between the science community, Party and non-Party stakeholders to benefit the intergovernmental process and Paris Agreement implementation.

It will provide an up–to–date picture of the state of the climate and an outlook on developments and opportunities to support decision making on risk assessment, adaptation and mitigation at regional and national level.

It could be a central underpinning for the global stocktake providing dynamic and continuous learning from the science community to inform and motivate acceleration of progress based on the best available science.

Earth Information Day at COP 22 includes a focus on actions and opportunities to support adaptation in Africa.

The Earth Information Day will feature speakers from the heads of UN and international science organizations and agencies and the scientific community on:

• The state of the climate and the global carbon budget and the development of indicators to support adaptation and mitigation;
• The GCOS Implementation Plan 2016 – explaining the essential climate variables, indicators and actions to support the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals;
• New developments in the estimation of GHG emissions from Earth observations to support national inventories;
• Earth observation actions and services to support adaptation in Africa.

The broad programme agenda is as follows:

10.15–10.45 Opening
10.45–13.00 Part I: Current Observations and Knowledge
15.00–18.00 Part II: Developments and Opportunities

Part I and Part II will both feature presentations and discussion followed by a poster session where delegates can interact with experts on a one–on–one basis. The posters will be on display for public viewing all day.

Carolin Richter
GCOS

The Global Climate Observing System Implementation Plan 2016 – Implementation Needs: Essential climate variables, indicators and actions in the 2016 GCOS implementation plan to support the Paris Agreement goals (4230 kB)

Toste Tanhua
GEOMAR on behalf of UNESCO–IOC

Ocean aspects of the GCOS Implementation Plan 2016: Connection to climate information and services for adaptation and mitigation, as well as how climate observations feed into relevant SDGs (2706 kB)

Glen Peters
Global Carbon Project

The global carbon budget (2972 kB)

Featured in the presentation is an animation showing the drivers of atmospheric carbon dioxide

Products and indicators to monitor the state of the climate system (8129 kB)

Part II: Developments and Opportunities

Carlos Fuller
SBSTA Chair

Christopher Lennard, Andreas Haensler, Grigory Nikulin and Wilfran Okia
CORDEX–Africa

African Impacts Atlas: A systematic analysis of regional impacts of a 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius global warming in Africa under different climate change scenarios (1087 kB)

Bernard Pinty
European Commission

Towards an operational capacity to monitor anthropogenic CO2 emissions (1527 kB)

Deon Terblanche
WMO

How observations and modelling of greenhouse gases can support the Paris Agreement: An integrated global greenhouse gas information system (IG3IS) (2076 kB)

Werner Kutsch
ICOS on behalf of GEO

The GEO initiative on carbon and greenhouse gases: Integration across domains (2370 kB)

Cat Downy
ESA - Future Earth

The Paris Agreement and integrated services to aid decision making on climate change adaptation (4519 kB)

Pascal Lecomte
CEOS 

Space Agencies and Climate Change: 2016 Global Climate Observing System Implementation Plan (1606 kB)

Carolin Richter
GCOS

GCOS Implementation Plan 2016: Observations for adaptation, mitigation and climate science (1831 kB)

Toste Tanhua
GEOMAR on behalf of UNESCO–IOC

GCOS Implementation Plan 2016: Ocean aspects (830 kB)

GEO's efforts in support of the Paris Agreement (4972 kB)  

Karina von Schuckmann and David Carlson
WCRP

Towards an Integrated View of the Global Earth Energy Budget (501 kB)

David Carlson
WCRP

Ocean State Report from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (167 kB)

Components of a Sea Level Budget for Climate Monitoring (1563 kB)

The status of the global climate – update on the 2011–2015 period (3076 kB)

Deon Terblanche
WMO

Role of high quality observations in international policy making: lessons from the Global Atmosphere Watch Programme (2042 kB)

How forest observations and land use change support mitigation efforts (937 kB)

The role of observations in developing mitigation options (examples from IG3IS) (1545 kB)

The impact of 1.5°C and 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels of global warming in semi-arid hot-spots in Africa and India (2137 kB)

Investigating the Impact of Projected Timing of Climate Departure on Crop Yield over West Africa (1185 kB)

A new vision for weather and climate services in Africa

Africa – Best practices and lessons from ClimDev–Africa and the African SIDS initiative

Juan-Carlos Villagran, UNOOSA

Satellite technologies for national adaptation planning (1228 kB)

The use of satellite technologies for observation and communication of extreme and slow onset events (1280 kB)

GCOS Climate Monitoring: Examples of recent performance monitoring statistics for climate observations (9032 kB)

Capacity Development: The GCOS Cooperation Mechanism – practical support for Parties to improve their observations through equipment, people and communications (1717 kB)

How climate observations will play a role in the global stocktake (2059 kB)