The European Commission’s Copernicus programme also attended this year’s COP in Katowice, Poland, and organised a number of activities at the EU Pavilion.
Organised jointly by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) – which implements C3S on behalf of the European Union – the event brought together leaders in the field of climate sciences.
Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, opened the event with an introduction to how the Copernicus services add value to European businesses. Jean-Noël Thépaut, Head of C3S, and Florence Rabier, Director-General of ECMWF, also presented, as did Florin Vladu from the UNFCCC and Maxx Dilley from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The UNFCCC and WMO both use C3S data to provide products that help people around the world tackle and adapt to climate change.
C3S funds a variety of projects that turn satellite and in-situ data into applications useful for the wider population. Representatives from two of these projects – Alberto Troccoli (WEMC) and Christiana Photiadou (SMHI) – talked about how they use data for the energy and water sectors, respectively.
“C3S has become an important asset globally, but also for economic sectors in need of climate information,” explained Jean-Noël Thépaut, Head of C3S. “We provide access to data about climate change and its impacts that helps businesses and policy makers make decisions.”
Elżbieta Bieńkowska concluded the event by saying, “It’s very visible that decisions taken at a high European level are giving results. Fighting climate change needs global action and global effort but this programme is a sign that it’s working.”
This COP24 side event presented an insight into how data produced by C3S are used to benefit people around the world, including both the scientific community, businesses and society more broadly.