World Climate Conference 3 brings together top politicians, decision-makers and climate experts

In August, the UN body WMO organises a world conference on climate services in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference will bring together national and international bodies, such high-level participants as Heads of States and Ministers, other decision-makers and also climate scientists. SMHI is taking part in the preparations.

World Climate Conference 3, WCC-3, is being held in Geneva from 31 August to 4 September 2009. The theme of this third world conference on climate is Climate Prediction and information for decision-making. WCC-3 is being organised by the UN body WMO with associations to several bodies within the UN, which is co-ordinating its activities on climate issues.

The conference aims to develop the link between climate monitoring, analysis and research on the one hand, and society's need for and use of information to support handling climate-related risks and opportunities on the other,? says Markku Rummukainen, climate expert at SMHI.

Most social areas affected

The conference will focus on what information is needed to deal with climate-related risks in the best way on various sectors of society, including both climate variability and change. Among these sectors are agriculture, energy, water, biodiversity, health, transport and infrastructure.

Particular focus will be placed on capacity building around the world. One vision is to begin a process to develop a new global framework for climate services, which would complement existing platforms such as the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).

The conference will be comprised of plenary sessions, parallel working sessions, round table discussions and so on. Up to 1,500 delegates are expected to come to Geneva for the conference.

Sweden will be involved in the organising committee through SMHI, and will also help develop theme-specific "white papers" that will provide important input for the discussions.

-The white books will broadly highlight various social sectors needs for climate data, and will consider the administration and development perspectives of both the scientific community and various governing bodies on climate information, says Markku Rummukainen.

Involved in setting up the IPCC

Two previous World Climate Conferences have been held, one in 1979 and one in 1990. These contributed to the establishment of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the GCOS global observation system.