Chapter 6 Australian Participation in GCOS/GOOS/GTOS

Australian Participation in GCOS, GOOS and GTOS

Coordination of Australian involvement in GCOS, GOOS and GTOS is largely achieved through the strong working relationships and interpersonal rapport between representatives of the interested government departments. The Department of the Environment and Heritage, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Academy of Science and the Heads of Marine Agencies all play a key role in participation by Australia in GCOS, GTOS and GOOS. Coordination of activities across these agencies has been effected through a Joint Working Group (JWG), which reports to a Steering Committee consisting of representatives of the Australian counterparts of the principal international sponsoring agencies namely WMO, IOC, ICSU and UNEP (Figure 6.9).

Figure 6.9 The organization of Australian planning for GCOS and GOOS and its relationship to international planning. The correspondence between the Australian and international sponsors is shown, (DEH, Department of Environment and Heritage; BoM, Bureau of Meteorology; HOMA, Heads of Commonwealth Marine Agencies; AAS, Australian Academy of Science). The Bureau of Meteorology provides the secretariat to the JWG. As GTOS develops, the structure of the JWG and its Steering Committee are being adjusted accordingly.

The establishment and operation of the JWG is indicative of the commitment in Australia to an integrated approach to monitoring across agencies, disciplines and regimes. The last major activity coordinated under the auspices of the JWG was Australia’s national report on global climate observing systems, submitted as part of Australia’s Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. The membership and terms of reference of the JWG are currently being reviewed and strengthened within a view to the JWG playing a key role in engaging Australia’s expert monitoring community in the planning and implementation of an integrated Earth observing system as proposed by the US at its July 2003 Earth Observation Summit (EOS) in Washington DC.

Australia’s delegation to the EOS (Dr John Zillman, Bureau of Meteorology, as representative of the Minister for the Environment; Dr Tony Haymet, CSIRO Marine Research; and Ms Tricia Kaye, Australian Greenhouse Office) played a key role in reinforcing the need to build on existing systems. They worked closely with other delegations to ensure that the followup process, through the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), provided an opportunity for involvement by all countries and intergovernmental agencies. Australia will co-chair one of the GEO subgroups (on International Cooperation, together with US and IOC) and will also be an active contributor to the work of the other four subgroups (Architecture, Data Utilisation, Data Requirements and Outreach, and Capacity Building).