CLIVAR participated in the 43^rd Meeting of the WCRP’s Joint Steering Committee (JSC-43), organized virtually from 27 - 30 June 2022. The meeting aimed to assess the progress made by the core projects and lighthouse activities (LHA) towards WCRP's goals and the ambitions and plans for the future of WCRP. Day 1 of the meeting focused on updates and discussion on the strategic initiatives and issues of WCRP, which included the new and emerging science issues, three task teams (climate intervention; GPEX and Cycles and budgets), and collaboration with GCOS and IPCC as well as the Future of Climate Modeling workshop. Days 2 &3 were the presentations and discussions of WCRP core activities, and a summary of the Climate Research Forums organized in different regions; Day 4 was on connection, partnership and collaboration as well as the 2023 WCRP Open Science Conference.

Dr. Sonya Legg, co-chair of the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG) made the CLIVAR report during the meeting. The report highlighted: 1) progress and achievements since JSC-42, which included the science highlights and capacity building activities implemented by Panels/RFs, CLIVAR’s contribution to WCRP implementation, interaction with the UN Ocean Decade, CLIVAR endorsed activities and publications; 2) the future plan of CLIVAR, highlighting potential interaction and cooperation with other WCRP core projects and LHAs; as well as 3) emerging issues and upcoming events. The JSC suggested CLIVAR to make more strategic collaboration with GCOS, OOPS and GOOS, which was currently more focused on individual activity level. Also, the km-scale models, and more regional-focused activities may be potential areas to collaborate with other WCRP components.

David Behar made the presentation for the WCRP Grand Challenge on Sea Level Change and the costal Impacts (SL GC), with emphasis on the engagement of practitioners and the organization of the upcoming WCRP Sea Level Conference in Singapore. Meanwhile, the future plan for the SL GC after its sunset in 2022 was specifically discussed. There was a concern from JSC on whether the Sea Level issue is adequately covered in the new structure of WCRP, as it seems that SL is fragmented in different components of new WCRP. More in-depth discussion will be expected during the upcoming Sea Level Conference, which will provide a good opportunity to bring together the practitioners and scientists and let them communicate with each other. The representative from Safe Landing Climate LHA and Regional Information for Society (RIfS) new core project were invited to make presentations in the conference for leveraging more linkages.

Representatives from CLIVAR actively participated in the discussions on strengthening the interaction and cooperation with other WCRP core projects and activities. The major uptakes were:

• CLIVAR was interested in the implementation of the CliC Fellowship, and appreciated the detailed information provided by CliC IPO and WCRP Secretariat. WCRP Secretariat is currently trying to work out a way of handling the fellowship grants via WMO.
• The fine scale ocean modeling promoted by Ocean Modeling Development Panel (OMDP) and the effort on data assimilation made by the Global Synthesis and Observations Panel (GSOP) of CLIVAR can potentially contribute to the Digital Earth LHA, Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change LHA, Earth System Modeling and Observation (ESMO) new core project, in order to make sure that the ocean is well represented in those activities.
• There will be potential contribution from CLIVAR to cultivate ocean hubs for My Climate Risk LHA.
• A clearer mechanism for WCRP activities to share their training materials with the WCRP Academy LHA will be provided soon, but currently just through direct communication with the co-chairs of the LHA to kick off the conversation.

Finally, the WCRP Secretariat presented an update on the organization of the WCRP Open Science Conference 2023, focusing on “Advancing climate science for a sustainable future”,  which will be held during October 23-27 in Rwanda, CLIVAR is planning to have a strong presence in this conference and our community will discuss in the next months how to best prepare for this important event.