It reviewed the contributions and lessons from the CLIPS project, established by the World Meteorological Congress in 1995.
CLIPS supported the provision of regional seasonal climate predictions and their interpretation for decision-making in climate sensitive sectors.The mission of CLIPS was “to provide the best possible climate information, including expectations of future conditions, to improve economic and social decisions that will reduce risks and improve economic vitality as well as quality of life.” Over the ensuing decades, CLIPS worked to increase climate knowledge, improve seasonal climate prediction capabilities and to develop the capacities of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services for the delivery of climate information to meet the needs of stakeholders.
CLIPS was instrumental in the development of the concept of Regional Climate Centres and their formal establishment around the world. It also played a key role in the development of Regional Climate Outlook Fora as effective platforms for generating consensus-based seasonal climate outlooks at the regional scale. Such efforts by CCl, in coordination with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, the WCRP Secretariat and other relevant bodies, have enabled systematic production of operational climate information at global and regional levels. These initiatives, together with the CLIPS training workshops, have helped to build capacities for climate services. The achievements of CLIPS significantly contributed to the formulation of the GFCS.
The technical conference reviewed the evolution and achievements of CLIPS; the importance of the systematic collection and archiving of climate data for reliable climate services; improvements needed to better monitor the climate and to provide outlook products for climate information services at global, regional and national levels; and research challenges for improving climate predictions at regional scale.
Next year CLIPS will transition into the GFCS. The 20-year legacy of CLIPS has provided a strong foundation for GFCS implementation.
