ISO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have agreed to increase their cooperation in the development of International Standards related to meteorological and hydrological data, products and services.
ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden and WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud signed an agreement on working arrangements on 16 September 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland, to formalize the partnership.
The WMO has liaison status with nearly 30 of ISO's technical committees developing standards with relevance to hydrometry, air quality, water quality, soil quality, geographic information, solar energy, petroleum and gas industry, information technologies, marine, quantities and units.
The working arrangements between the WMO and ISO aim to strengthen the development of International Standards and to avoid duplication of work on standards related to meteorological, climatological, hydrological, marine and related environmental data, products and services.
Procedures are now in place for the accelerated adoption by ISO of WMO documents as ISO standards. WMO and ISO will develop, approve and publish common standards based on WMO technical regulations, manuals and guides.
The WMO Secretary-General stated that the new procedures “would clarify the authority of WMO documents and enhance their international recognition and dissemination. This will be of particular importance to the activities of national hydrological and meteorological services in addressing standard issues.”
Alan Bryden underlined that the agreement was an illustration of the increasing collaboration between the UN system and ISO, as well as of the contribution of International Standards to responding to the challenges of climate change.
ISO and WMO have been working in close cooperation since the granting of consultative status to ISO by the WMO Executive Council at its fifth session in 1954.
ISO has recognized WMO as an international standardization body through ISO Council Resolution 43/2007 approved in December 2007.