Global Change The french IGBP-WCRP Newsletter

Publisher: Robert Delmas (President of IGBP-WCRP-IHDP-Diversitas France)
Editor: Marie-Antoinette Mélières
ISSN: 1261-4246

What is the French IGBP-WCRP Newsletter?

Such programmes aim at improving the understanding of the Earth system and of the forcing factors that affect global change. The main related sub-programmes allow to gather the international community and to favour the development of research lines that are deemed necessary at the time being. The French research is involved in nearly all of them, although at different development stages.

Every programme develops a series of core projects, that are listed in annex 1. Annex 2 sets down all the international organisations connected with these programmes.

The Global Change Newsletter addresses a varied readership (decision-makers, researchers, teachers,?). This publication of about 70 pages has a circulation of 3,500 copies and comes out twice a year. The Newsletter is bilingual and distributed in France and abroad, especially in French-speaking countries. It is mainly distributed in research and educational organisations, as well as in several ministries (Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Development; Ministry of Education, Research and Technology; Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

All the studies involved in these various programmes are led by about twenty major organisations, including among the main ones: Universities, INSU-CNRS (French Scientific Research Centre), Météo-France (French Meteorological Organisation), IFREMER (French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea), IRD (Institute of Research for Development), INRA (French Institute for Agricultural Research), CNES (French Space Agency), CIRAD (Centre for International Co-operation on Agricultural Research for Development), CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission), SHOM (Hydrography and Oceanography Department of the French Navy),?

What objective does it meet?

History

This Newsletter was launched by the Ministry of Research and Technology (namely by Jean Labrousse, Director of DSPT3) at the end of 1994. At that time I was the Project leader in charge of creating this review. In spite of the ups and downs of the following years (cabinet reshuffles), the Newsletter has continued being published. It now has gained a certain popularity among our community and an international recognition, from international organisations as well as from Brussels. It is actually the only journal of international audience in French language that informs about the research developed by the major international programmes connected with Global Change.

This review was created to meet various purposes:

• to allow the people in charge of research management to quickly access information, to get a synthetic view on the various programmes and campaigns backed by the French scientific community, to know the participants and shares involved and the co-operations abroad, and to take stock of the latest developments. With the Newsletter, they can better see how are used the various means made available to the French scientific community.
• to build a link between the stakeholders of the highly diversified communities involved in these studies at the national level and to make the information available to teachers, students and to the general public (through the Internet),
• to create a dynamic between France and French-speaking countries:
  • by informing them about on-going and future programmes,
  • by setting down the contacts with the research groups involved (development of contacts),
  • by reporting the results of research led in co-operation with these countries through articles.

Outline of the content

Articles are not designed as scientific reports. They aim not only at providing scientific information but also at evidencing the co-operations involved, the international audience, the difficulties of implementation, the amount of technical means used in some campaigns, and the pending questions.

The last Newsletters

Avril 2008:

September 2005:

December 2004:

March 2004 :

June 2003 :

October 2002 :

February 2002 :

July 2001 :

November 2000 :

February 2000 :

April 1999 :

September 1998 :

January 1998 :

May 1997 :

October 1996 :

April 1996 :

September 1995 :

February 1995 :

June 1994 :

Annex 1: Main core projects developed within the scope of IGBP and WCRP

• IGAC International Global Atmospheric Chemistry
• GCTE Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem
• BAHC Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle
• LOICZ Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone
• JGOFS Joint Global Ocean Flux Study
• GOEZ Global Ocean Euphotic Zone study
• PAGES Past Global Changes
• LUCC Land Use and Cover Change (being launched)
• GAIM Global Analysis, Interpretation and Modelling
• START System for Analysis, Research and Training
• IGBP-DIS Data and Information System
  
• CLIVAR CLImatic VARiability (just launched)
• SPARC Stratospheric Processes
• ACSyS Arctic Climate System Study
• CMP Climate Modelling Programme
• GEWEX Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment
• WOCE World Ocean Circulation Experiment

Annex 2: Connections of the four programmes with international organisations

The four IGBP, WCRP, IHDP and Diversitas programmes are closely related to the other international organisations involved in global change, either directly, or through ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions).

These main organisations are the following ones:

• GCOS Global Climate Observing System
• IOC Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission
• IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• ISSC International Social Science Council
• SCOPE Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment
• UNEP United Nations Environment programme
• UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
• WMO World Meteorological Organisation.