VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGV #0080/01 0280816
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 280813Z JAN 10
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0040
INFO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA

UNCLAS GENEVA 000080 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR IO/HS 
EEB, OES 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV KGHG WMO AORC
SUBJECT: The Global Framework for Climate Services 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  The WMO hosted an intergovernmental meeting in Geneva 
on January 11-12, 2010, to approve the terms of reference and 
endorse the composition of a task force of high-level, independent 
advisors who will conduct consultations and make recommendations on 
the components of a Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). 
The terms of reference that were adopted direct the task force to 
produce, within 12 months, a vision of the Global Framework for 
Climate Services that will "define the roles, responsibilities, and 
capabilities of the elements within the GFCS and clearly illustrate 
how it will assist the integration of climate information and 
services into national planning, policy and programmes."  The task 
force will be composed of sixteen members providing relevant 
expertise and regional and gender balance.  The intergovernmental 
meeting also decided that governments and relevant organizations 
may submit their views on the GFCS by April 15 for consideration by 
the task force.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  The U.S. delegation to the meeting included the Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Environment and Sustainable Development, 
the Deputy Director of the Climate Program Office at NOAA; and the 
EST Officer at the US Geneva Mission.  The delegation achieved its 
goals of 1) reaching agreement on concise terms of reference that 
gives direction to but does not overly prescribe the outcome from 
the task force, 2) endorsing the composition of the task force 
without protracted debate, and 3) ensuring that relevant 
organizations and governments could submit their views on the GFCS 
for consideration by the task force. 
 
¶3.  Background:  The US mission hosted a lunch on Monday before our 
meetings began that enabled us to talk with other governmental 
representatives with similar ideas for the task force, including 
Barbados, Indonesia, Canada, Chile, Slovenia and Norway.  Canada 
and Indonesia were eventually asked to chair the drafting group 
during the meeting to elaborate the terms of reference, so the 
preparations beforehand were instrumental in creating a solid 
understanding of USG goals and strategy. 
 
¶4.  The intergovernmental meeting opened at 3 pm on January 11th 
and was chaired by Alexander Bedritsky, current President of WMO, 
who did a superb job presiding over the plenary and the Committee 
of the Whole and getting the drafting group set up.  Right at the 
start, the US raised procedural issues with the text.  The WMO had 
sent out an official text, translated into the six UN languages on 
6 Jan, but also had held consultations with a sub-set of countries 
in Geneva who had drafted text that was heavily slanted to 
developing country concerns and overly-prescriptive of the task 
force's expected outcomes.  This text had been neither widely 
circulated nor translated into all official languages before the 
meeting began, so the USDEL requested that member states begin 
negotiations on the official text.  Despite widespread support for 
this idea, a small group of developing countries insisted upon 
working from the revised text.  After hours of procedural 
wrangling, consensus was reached to use as a starting point a 
streamlined text distributed to all WMO members in December 2009. 
A drafting group was constituted and drafting continued until 11:50 
pm. 
 
¶5.  The group reconvened on Tuesday and worked all day to draft the 
terms of reference for the task force. The US Delegation, with 
support from many developed and developing countries alike, pushed 
for simple instructions that gave the task force a mandate to 
consult broadly with uses and providers of climate information and 
services.  We successfully resisted efforts by a handful of 
developing countries (including India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Bolivia, 
Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria) to hamstring the task force with 
instructions slanted heavily in the direction of developing 
countries' ideological mantra, which included principles such as 
recognition of the "common but differentiated responsibility" of 
developed and developing countries, other links to the UNFCCC and 
Kyoto Protocol, limits to data sharing, and requirements for 
financial and technological assistance.  At about 8pm, terms of 
reference finally were adopted.  These were consistent with U.S. 
interests, incorporating some benign principles such as the need 
for broad consultation and the important role of governments, but 
none of the more problematic references. 
 
¶6.  When the plenary was reconvened, Nigeria and Egypt, supported 
by others in their group, initially refused to agree to terms of 
reference that did not have principles clearly elaborated.  In a 
mini-replay of Copenhagen, we nearly ended up at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 
only able to "take note" of the work of the intergovernmental 
meeting or, worse, to reconvene at a later date to complete the 
work.  The situation was salvaged when Mauritius, as head of the 
African Group, asked for a break and brokered a deal with the two 
aforementioned countries to accept a suggestion from Chairman 
Bedtrisky to allow a section of the terms of reference to be 
 
titled: General Principles and Scope of Work. Thereafter, the task 
force composition was endorsed quickly, as was a suggestion from 
Chairman Bedritsky to note the input from India, Bangladesh and 
others in the meeting report, and a request from the US that any 
additional input from other countries and relevant organizations be 
solicited and considered by the task force.  Any such submissions 
are due by 15 April 2010. 
 
¶7.  Next steps: USG should plan to submit views on the substance of 
the GFCS by April 15. 
 
¶8. Comment:  This meeting, the WCC-3 itself, and the WMO 
Extraordinary session of the WMO EC Working group on Climate and 
Related Weather, Water and Environmental Matters in October, have 
helped establish a strong and supportive working relationship 
between the US and most other WMO members on climate issues.  The 
US worked closely with Permanent Representatives (and their 
designates) from Germany, France and almost all of the major 
developed countries, as well as with Caribbean and other island 
countries and, perhaps most notably, African states.  This working 
relationship will no doubt help with climate issues addressed under 
the WMO in the future and specifically for work on the GFCS that 
will continue at the WMO Congress and beyond. End Comment. 
GRIFFITHS