Climate science and services: Providing climate information for adaptation, sustainable development and risk management

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), sponsored by WMO, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and the International Council for Science (ICSU), is focussing its efforts on providing science support to the design and implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services and addressing the ICSU Grand Challenges for Future Earth initiative. The multitude of international field experiments, analysis and re-analysis of observations, Earth system models, climate prediction and projection projects, and scientific synthesis and assessments need to be coordinated and integrated with other relevant information to enable practical application of fundamental climate science of direct relevance, benefit and value to society. User feedback is essential in driving the climate research towards addressing climate services requirements for adaptation planning, risk management and sustainable development. Providing tailored climate information in a timely and effective manner on global, regional, and national levels, and in response to the needs of different economic sectors such as agriculture and food production, water resources management, disaster risk management, and human health, energy and transport, among others, is key to the success of the Future Earth and GFCS initiatives. We describe in this paper the WCRP strategy and approach for addressing these challenges and opportunities.