CARMINE was developed and submitted by WMO and external partners in response to the EU Horizon Programme call ‘Modelling for local resilience - Developments in support of local adaptation assessments and plans’. The call noted that resources and tools to address adaptation at the local level are often scarce. To improve the support to local adaptation action it is essential to increase the availability, reliability, accessibility and resolution of climate information, in combination with non-climatic natural and anthropogenic drivers, at local and regional scale considering local specificities.’Alongside fostering close connections with the EU Climate-ADAPT platform and the Destination Earth initiative, CARMINE was required to ensure the participation of social sciences and humanities research and perspectives into its project team and activities, and consider the involvement of citizens and societal actors. To secure funding, CARMINE’s team was required to demonstrate how the participation of social sciences and humanities research was key to addressing the socio-economic, decision-making and local governance aspects of the topic and the project goals. 

CrossEU was developed and submitted by WMO and external partners during late 2021 and early 2022 in response to the EU Horizon Programme call ‘Socio-economic risks of climate change in Europe’. The call required proposals to develop and use a ‘truly interdisciplinary approach combining a wide range of disciplines including economics, climate science, bio-geophysical modelling, data engineering, risk analysis, political and behavioural science etc. as well as for an active involvement of and co-creation with people and communities at risk’.In subsequently securing funding in a two stage competitive process, WMO and partners were able to convince the donor and reviewers that the project proposal would ‘improve the understanding of the nature and extent of physical risks from a changing climate and their integrated socio-economic implications in Europe in 2030, 2050 and 2100 timeframes’. 

The project was developed by WMO and external partners during mid-late 2022 in response to an EC Horizon Programme call under the 'Disaster Resilient Society’ topic, titled ‘Improved impact forecasting and early warning systems supporting the rapid deployment of first responders in vulnerable areas’. 

The overall causes and impacts of global warming related to the increase of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, in the atmosphere are well understood with a high level of confidence, but there are large knowledge gaps concerning the impact of other species which contribute to radiative forcing, such as short-lived greenhouse gases and aerosols and their precursors. These gaps lead to high uncertainties concerning their subsequent effects on atmospheric chemistry and climate, through direct changes in emissions as well as through various feedback mechanisms (e.g., permafrost thawing). Additionally, albedo changes connected to land use and land-cover can play a role, depending on adaptation or mitigation included in different scenarios.  Thus, the main goal of the four-year EC Horizon Europe project FOCI (accepted within the call HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01-0 Improved understanding of greenhouse gas fluxes and radiative forcers, including carbon dioxide removal technologies), is to assess the impact of key radiative forcers, where and how they arise, the processes of their impact on the climate system, to find and test an efficient implementation of these processes into global Earth System Models and into Regional Climate Models, and finally to use the tools developed to investigate mitigation and/or adaptation policies incorporated in selected scenarios of future development targeted at Europe and other regions of the world.WMO is one of 17 partners in the project and leads one of nine work packages: communicating and disseminating project results among the scientific community and promote their uptake in international policy and operational services, including integrated health, urban, and energy services.

 Climateurope2 is a Horizon Europe project addressing the critical need for timely and effective climate information, aiming to support the climate services community by proposing standardization procedures for future equitable and quality-assured climate services, essential for decision-making across various societal sectors.WMO will support the creation of an inventory of the current climate services (CS) market, analyze its gaps, explore potential future developments, identifying existing standards and potential gaps to describe (meta)data, identifying best practices and user requirements for provenance and lineage information, along with effective presentation methods and improving verification and certification methods to ensure quality assurance and FAIRness (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) of data, processes, and products. 

Since October 2018, and in response to the Paris Agreement (Article 7, paragraph 7 (c)) WMO and Green Climate Fund (GCF) have partnered to provide the global community with access to new climate information, tools, and guidance to facilitate the generation and use of climate information in support of climate action decisions, recognizing the contribution and value of science-based decision-making in responding to climate change.  Some of the products developed by WMO include a methodology for Developing the Climate Science Information for Climate Action (WMO-No. 1287), data, tools and associated technical resources for enhancing the climate science basis for GCF-funded projects and activities, as well as for National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and climate policies.  The aim of providing these products is to help all countries, in particular least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS) and developing countries to identify and select the most effective climate actions to address climate impacts. In doing so, the guidance can contribute to country-level decision-making and the mobilization of climate finance.The Climate Science Information for Climate Action (CSICA) initiative was officially launched in 2021 at the twenty-sixth Conference of Parties (COP 26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow, Scotland. Furthermore, the GCF Board at its thirty-third Session in July 2022 adopted Decision 19 (GCF B.33/19) recognizing the results of the WMO-GCF collaboration and acknowledged the importance of scaling up the support for strengthening the capacity of all stakeholders to access, synthesize, and incorporate relevant climate science information into climate action policies, plans and investments, as well as enhancing the hydrological and meteorological systems and associated climate information services for low-carbon and climate-resilient development.Noting significant demand from countries, and high-level political support for this work, WMO is implementing the CSICA initiative through the provision of institutional coordination support, technical advisory services, capacity development and increased partnerships. 

Flash floods are among the world’s deadliest natural disasters with more than 5 000 lives lost annually. Their social, economic and environmental impacts are significant. Accounting for approximately 85% of flooding cases, flash floods also have the highest mortality rate among different classes of flooding, including riverine and coastal. Flash floods differ from river floods in their short time scales and occurrence on small spatial scales, which makes flash flood forecasting a different challenge from large-river flood forecasting. In flash floods forecasting, we are concerned mostly with the forecast of occurrence, and focus on two causative events: 1) intense rainfall; and 2) rainfall on saturated soils. Flash floods occur throughout the world, and the development times vary across regions from minutes to several hours depending on the land surface, geomorphological and hydrometeorological characteristics of the region. However, for the majority of these areas, there exists no formal process or capacity for developing flash flood warnings.