asked Her Majesty's Government:

What progress the Department for International Development has made in helping developing countries take advantage of the Global Climate Observation System for climate change observation and analysis.[HL1337]

DfID has committed £5 million over five years, from 2006-07, to the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS) initiative to help Africa improve the use of climate information in development planning and disaster risk management. The initiative is divided into three phases. The first phase (2006-07 to 2008-09) will identify the key climate information needs to support achieving the millennium development goals. The second phase (2009-10 to 2011-12) will scale up good practice and the final phase (2012-13 to 2014-15) will focus on large-scale implementation to build climate resilience in Africa.

The programme will be launched at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa later in January. Work will then begin on preparing a detailed plan and full implementation will begin in the last quarter of 2007.