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1 Common issues 
The present report is the first official report based on the reporting guidelines contained in 
decision 11/CP.13, focussing on Essential Climate Variables. More detailed information is 
contained in the Second Report of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on 
Systematic Climate Observation in Germany provided as part of Germany’s 4 th National 
Communication in 2006. 
The report is an update of that provided to the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) 
Secretariat as additional information from national levels for GCOS’ detailed progress report 
on the Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System for Climate in Support of the 
UNFCCC, short GCOS IP, (GCOS-92) submitted for consideration at SBSTA-30 in June 
2009 1 . GCOS, being itself a system of systems, is also part of the Global Earth Observing 
System of Systems (GEOSS) implemented by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). 
Many German institutions contribute to the GEO Work Plan, and thereby indirectly in many 
cases are also supporting the GCOS Implementation Plan. 
In Germany, competences for systematic long-term observation of the various variables de 
scribing the climate system are distributed among a number of different Federal Ministries. 
These are the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs (BMVBS) and its 
subordinate authorities German Meteorological Service (DWD) and German Maritime and 
Hydrographic Agency (BSH) as well as the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature 
Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and its subordinate authorities Federal Environmen 
tal Agency (UBA) and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN). Research institu 
tions also play an important role. 
Moreover, Germany delivers significant contributions to European satellite observation sys 
tems developed and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Or 
ganisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) aiming at the detec 
tion of global climate changes. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) also implements a na 
tional space-based earth observation programme that contributes to the global climate ob 
servation capacities. 
In order to improve usability and accessibility of geographical data and information at Feder 
al, Lander and Community levels a German Geodata Infrastructure (GDI-DE) was estab 
lished. GDI-DE is also linked with the European INSPIRE and the Global Spatial Data Initia 
tive. At Federal level an inter-ministerial committee (IMAGI) has been established as early as 
1998. Progress is on the way in gradually completing a national Geo Portal 2 on the Internet. 
In fall 1993, a national GCOS Secretariat was established at Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) 
in Offenbach to coordinate the co-operation among the institutions involved on a national 
level in climate observing systems. Today the GCOS German Coordinator is a contribution 
by DWD. 
The BSH serves as national point of contact for the Global Ocean Observing System 
(GOOS). 
IMAGI, GDI-DE, GCOS-, and GOOS Coordinator are also interlinked with the German GEO 
Experts Group (D-GEO). 
1 FCCC/SBSTA/2009/Misc.7 
2 www.geoportal.bund.de