Our unprecedented climate

“The European State of the Climate report gives us an opportunity to provide a yearly snapshot of the state of the global climate that is relevant for the public discourse on climate and for the policymakers,” said Dr Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“Measuring sea level from satellites, for example, is quite challenging. Then, once you measure it and you have that time series available, it takes a lot of work to transform that piece of information into something that is relevant to public discourse.

“So, having an event like the launch of the European State of the Climate report where you have on average 150 journalists and media outlets coming from all over the globe to listen to the status of key climate variables and writing articles – as well as the policy brief to the European Commission – is an impressive example of how all the Copernicus investments made in the satellites, in the ground segments, in the observations actually pay off. These are ways of reaching out to the key communities as well as the general public to make sense of what is happening with the climate.”