Support provided to developing country parties and activities undertaken to strengthen existing and, where needed, establish national and regional systematic observation and monitoring networks.

Submission under the Cancun Agreements | September 2011

I. Overview

This submission contains information from the Australian Government on support provided to developing country Parties and activities undertaken to strengthen existing and, where needed, establish national and regional systematic observation and monitoring networks, as requested under FCCC/SBI/2011/L.17, paragraph 8.

The developing country Parties to which Australia has provided support fall within World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Region V to which Australia also belongs, and include South Pacific Island countries, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Australia has provided support in the order of AUD 10 million over the last 5 years. Technical support has been provided largely by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and funding primarily through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), but with some funding also provided by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Australia’s support is designed to assist its regional neighbours, including the Pacific Islands that are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change and sea level rise. These projects will also improve Pacific observations feeding into global weather and climate models.

II. Support provided by Australia to developing country Parties in relation to observational networks

The tables below lists support provided by Australia to developing country Parties and activities undertaken to strengthen national and regional systematic observation and monitoring networks over the period of the last 5 years.

Installation and upgrade of observation equipment
Detail Costs (AUD)* Frequency Funded by
Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Observations Network Upgrade. $4,285,000 One-off AusAID
Installation of a radar at Vanua Levu for FMS $1,775,000 One-off Bureau of Meteorology
Proposal to install an Automatic Weather Station at Kokoda, PNG. $501,000 One-off AusAID (as part of the Kodoka Safety package initiative)
Proposal to establish Tide Gauge in the Torres Strait for the Torres Strait Authority (TSA), the Bureau is still in negotiation with TSA. $322,000 One-off TSA
Upgrade to signal processing for the wind finding and weather watch radar at Nausori Airport, Fiji for Fiji Meteorological Services (FMS). $85,000 One-off FMS
Provision of maintenance of observation equipment
Detail Costs (AUD)* Frequency Funded by
Maintenance of Sea Level Gauges for the South Pacific $730,000 Annually AusAID
Technical support for radars at Nadi, Nasouri and Vanua Levu for the Fiji Meteorological Services (FMS) $10,000 One-off Bureau of Meteorology
Maintenance for Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) Tropical Warning Centre in Indonesia – maintenance of hardware and software equipment for the satellite systems. $20,000 Annually BMKG (Contract is up for renewal)
Provision of satellite data through SATAID which allows the meteorological services of Pacific nations a means to accessing low resolution satellite and NWP data. $5,000 Annually Bureau of Meteorology
Operation of the Regional Instrument Centre which provides training, calibration services and metrology advice to national meteorological organisations within WMO Region V
Detail Costs (AUD)* Frequency Funded by
Calibration of equipment for Malaysian Meteorological services $12,000 Bi annually Bureau of Meteorology
Host Region V conference for calibration. $7,000 Annually Bureau of Meteorology
Donate inspection instruments to Niue to sustain the quality of temperature, pressure, humidity and rainfall observations $15,000 One-off Bureau of Meteorology
Host annual Region V Metrology Workshop $7,000 One-off Bureau of Meteorology

In addition to the above direct support for observations and monitoring networks, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has been engaged with several projects in the South West Pacific, funded through AusAID that provide indirect support by strengthening climate data management. These include:

  • support and training to rescue, rehabilitate and analyse observational data through the Pacific Climate Change Science Project (PCCSP), including the development of tools that will be provided to partner countries together with training in their use;
  • work undertaken by Bureau of Meteorology staff on data rescue;
  • provision and training in relation to a climate database management system which will help National Meteorological Services better manage their climate data and enable partner countries to store their data in a robust system, and will also allow them to conduct detailed analysis based on that data;
  • The Pacific Island Climate prediction Project Phase 2 has fostered networking among 10 Pacific National Meteorological and Hydrological Services through a monthly On-line Climate Outlook Forum teleconference. Climate officers in each country evaluate their national weather observations data, in addition to producing a long range (3 to 6 months) forecast and assessing the accuracy of the previous forecast, using a decision support tool called SCOPIC. This project is funded at about AUD 4 million over 5 years.