Preface
Mohamed Larbi Selassi
Deputy Director of the National Meteorology, Morocco
Welcome address (translated from French)
WMO, WCRP, Medias-France and scientific institutions representatives,
ladies and gentlemen,
I want first to thank WMO and MEDIAS-France, who have honoured us by
organizing the two workshops, climate indices in Africa and data assessment for
global change research in the Mediterranean region, in Casablanca and I welcome all
of you here in Morocco.
It is with great pleasure that I open these two workshops on behalf of myself and
on behalf of the Direction of the Meteorologie N ationale of Morocco.
Climate change is becoming the focus of the international community because of
its global scale and unpredictable effects, the numerous impacts it causes, its global
feature and the complexity of the solutions that can mitigate its impacts.
Global warming and the greenhouse effect became a subject of study at the
international level since the United Nations Conference on the human environment
that was held in Stockholm in 1972. The research and coordination efforts that have
been made in this area have led to an "International Scientific consensus". High level
meetings like those held in Toronto in 1988, in Lahaye in 1989 and in Geneva in
1990, did confirm the greenhouse threat and the emergency to treat it.
Climate variability in general and climate change in particular are becoming a
permanent worry of all countries. They can cause serious impacts on human socioeconomical activities. The international community has been mobilized by creating
the scientific and technical instruments such as IPCC created by WMO and the
UNDP in 1988 and the juridical instruments such as the Intergovernmental
Negotiation Committee (INC) created by the United Nations as well as subsidiary
organs of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (Rio de
Janeiro 1992, Kyoto 97, Buenos Aires 98, Bonn 99 and La Haye 2000). Their
common main goal is to develop scientific knowledge essential to help policymakers
to do their duty.
Morocco ratified in 1995 the convention of Rio and affirms its commitment to
build progressively an environmental policy that consists of developing suitable and
integrated plans for water resources management, for the environment protection and
for the conservation and protection of the ecological systems. Components of these
efforts are to undertake scientitic and socioeconomic research studies and to develop
data sets of the climate system that will allow a better understanding of the causes and
effects of climate changes.
Hence, the "earth summit" conclusions urged the international community to
Mohamed Larbi Selassi
Deputy Director of the National Meteorology, Morocco
Welcome address (translated from French)
WMO, WCRP, Medias-France and scientific institutions representatives,
ladies and gentlemen,
I want first to thank WMO and MEDIAS-France, who have honoured us by
organizing the two workshops, climate indices in Africa and data assessment for
global change research in the Mediterranean region, in Casablanca and I welcome all
of you here in Morocco.
It is with great pleasure that I open these two workshops on behalf of myself and
on behalf of the Direction of the Meteorologie N ationale of Morocco.
Climate change is becoming the focus of the international community because of
its global scale and unpredictable effects, the numerous impacts it causes, its global
feature and the complexity of the solutions that can mitigate its impacts.
Global warming and the greenhouse effect became a subject of study at the
international level since the United Nations Conference on the human environment
that was held in Stockholm in 1972. The research and coordination efforts that have
been made in this area have led to an "International Scientific consensus". High level
meetings like those held in Toronto in 1988, in Lahaye in 1989 and in Geneva in
1990, did confirm the greenhouse threat and the emergency to treat it.
Climate variability in general and climate change in particular are becoming a
permanent worry of all countries. They can cause serious impacts on human socioeconomical activities. The international community has been mobilized by creating
the scientific and technical instruments such as IPCC created by WMO and the
UNDP in 1988 and the juridical instruments such as the Intergovernmental
Negotiation Committee (INC) created by the United Nations as well as subsidiary
organs of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (Rio de
Janeiro 1992, Kyoto 97, Buenos Aires 98, Bonn 99 and La Haye 2000). Their
common main goal is to develop scientific knowledge essential to help policymakers
to do their duty.
Morocco ratified in 1995 the convention of Rio and affirms its commitment to
build progressively an environmental policy that consists of developing suitable and
integrated plans for water resources management, for the environment protection and
for the conservation and protection of the ecological systems. Components of these
efforts are to undertake scientitic and socioeconomic research studies and to develop
data sets of the climate system that will allow a better understanding of the causes and
effects of climate changes.
Hence, the "earth summit" conclusions urged the international community to