World Meteorological Organization Working together in weather, climate and water

1. World Meteorological OrganizationWorking together in weather, climate and water WMO Presidents of Technical Commissions Executive Council LXII 8 June 2010 Global Framework for Climate Services WMO: Climate and Water www.wmo.int

2. Main Points • The 2010 Meeting of the Presidents of Technical Commissions (PTC) was held from 28 to 30 January 2010 in the WMO Secretariat, the report is available on the ftp server. • The PTC 2010 Meeting was the first one where Regional Association Presidents were present as participants, presidents of RAs I, V and VI were present. It was felt that the relationships and specific roles of TCs and RAs should be made clearer in the Strategic Plan. • The PTC suggested to improve the coordination between RAs, TCs and the relevant Secretariat Departments through the: • Definition of regional requirements and implementation priorities by RAs; • Organization of activities by TCs to meet the regional requirements; • Identification of joint activity areas by TCs and RAs; • Definition and implementation of the process and corresponding means on a case by case basis. Global Framework for Climate Services

3. Strategic Plan • The PTC held extensive discussions on WMO strategic and operational planning including actions towards the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of the Commissions. • The technical commissions are essential to WMO in terms of providing scientific and technical advice. • Commissions have already started adjusting their structure and mode of operation to meet the requirements of RBM. The presidents are willing to be actively involved in the discussion on WMO structure. • In the past years, significant efforts have been made by the technical commissions towards the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness Global Framework for Climate Services

4. Global Framework for Climate Services • Regarding the outcomes of WCC-3 and Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS): • The PTC emphasized the need for reflecting the roles of the relevant WMO Programmes in the Position Paper, and ensuring a strong role for the Commissions and other bodies guiding these Programmes in supporting the various components of GFCS. • The PTC agreed that a set of proposed thematic areas of activity under consideration by CCl-XV would require setting up of intercommission technical groups, including with the steering groups of the co-sponsored programmes such as GCOS and WCRP. It was agreed that the Inter-commission Group on GFCS (ICG-GFCS) would include presidents of each Commission as well as the chairpersons of steering committees of WMO co-sponsored Programmes, on topics relevant to the GFCS. The Terms of Reference recommended by the PTC for the proposed ICG-GFCS can be found under paragraph 8 of the report part of the document, Rep. 2.5(1). Global Framework for Climate Services

5. Cont… • The PTC discussed the Terms of Reference of the Commissions. These will come up specifically in Draft Resolutions in Documents 2.5 (2), (3), (4) and (5). • The PTC recommended a revision of the general terms of reference of the Commissions, this recommendation is in Draft Resolution 2.5/3 (EC-LXII). The Council is requested to note the recommendation and amend the general terms of reference of technical commissions accordingly by adopting the afore-named resolution. Global Framework for Climate Services