EIB and ECMWF agree to leverage Copernicus for smart climate adaptation

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) signed a memorandum of understanding on November 9, setting out a framework for cooperation on the enhanced use of Copernicus Earth observation data. The new partnership will see the two parties work together to enable Copernicus climate and atmosphere data to support EIB activities as the EU´s Climate Bank.

As part of its Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-2025 the EIB, in its role as the investment arm of the European Union, committed to substantially increasing climate adaptation efforts and ensuring that all the operations it supports are adapted to current weather variability and future climate change impacts. The new cooperation agreement with ECMWF will support it in achieving these objectives. 

Financing adaptation

Under its new Climate Adaptation Plan, launched at COP26 in Glasgow, the EIB will significantly increase its support to adaptation in Europe and globally by supporting smarter, more systemic and faster adaptation. A desire to leverage the best available information and tools needed to support smarter climate change adaptation lies at the heart of the new agreement with ECMWF.

“We are committed to ensuring that our investments are informed by the best available climate data and information. We are therefore very enthusiastic about our partnership with ECMWF. Our cooperation will benefit EIB’s and our clients’ decision-making and support the development of effective climate adaptation strategies in the EU and globally,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle.

“This partnership is an important milestone in cooperation between our two organisations. The Copernicus climate change and atmosphere monitoring services will provide the EIB with robust and authoritative quality-controlled data services and tools, in support of its smart adaptation approaches and strategies,” said ECMWF Director General Dr Florence Rabier.

Under the agreement, the EIB and ECMWF will collaborate to enhance the use of owned or brokered data, information and tools from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) to inform the EIB’s approaches, decisions and strategies relevant to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space programme and ECMWF implements these Copernicus Services on behalf of the European Commission with funding by the EU. C3S provides information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the world, while CAMS provides information related to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases and climate forcing across the world.