Climate change monitoring in the Netherlands

Climate observations in the Netherlands

This inventory is performed by *CESAR, Deltares, Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Rijkswaterstaat Centre for Water Management, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Universtity of Groningen (RUG-CIO), TNO Built Environment and Geosciences/IGRAC, Utrecht University (UU-IMAU), VU University Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR-Alterra) within the framework of the programme for Scientific Assessment and Policy Analysis for climate change (WAB). The inventory concerns, on the one hand, the classical meteorological observations and, on the other hand, relatively new observations of many other parameters needed to understand climate change and to develop climate projections. These new climate observations proved to be mainly financed on an ad-hoc basis by short-term national and international programmes. This situation is undesirable, as it endangers continuity of the observations; climate monitoring needs to be a long-term and uninterrupted activity. Short-term projects are more suitable for the development of observation techniques, not for the observations themselves. The relatively slow speed at which climate change is occurring and the existence of natural variability require high quality continuous time series of observations and, thus, continuous financial support.

The report concludes:

• There is insufficient long term financial support for climate monitoring programmes, which endangers the necessary continuity
• Climate monitoring provides structural support to developing countries, with which The Netherlands could fulfil her commitments, but at the moment this support is missing;
• Sound climate monitoring is feasible against costs that are small compared to the costs of adequate climate change policies.

*CESAR is a consortium of TUDelft, KNMI, RIVM, WUR, ECN, ESA-ESTEC, TNO, and IMAU which runs the Cabauw observatory.