EUMETSAT Annual Report 2022

EUMETSAT ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Agreement strengthens
commitment to Africa
The African Union Commission and EUMETSAT
signed an agreement in May to formalise
cooperation under the Intra-ACP Climate Services
and Related Applications (ClimSA) programme.
The agreement aims to significantly boost African
nations’ capacity to mitigate the impacts of climate
change by sharing the benefits of Europe’s nextgeneration
meteorological satellites. It commits
EUMETSAT to providing data, technical support
and training in Africa.
EUMETSAT publishes
climate action statement
At the Global Climate Observing System’s Climate
Observation Conference in Darmstadt, Germany, in
October, EUMETSAT published its first statement on
climate action. The statement commits EUMETSAT
to contributing to the maintenance of essential
climate variables records, implementation of the
Paris agreement, provision of climate change
information to the United Nations and provision
of continuous, long-term climate data records.
Election of new EUMETSAT
Council Chairman
Eoin Moran, Director of Ireland’s national
meteorological service, Met Éireann, was
elected EUMETSAT Chairman for a twoyear
term at the council’s 101st meeting in
Amsterdam on 30 June – 1 July. At the same
meeting, Marianne Thyrring, Director-General of
the Danish Meteorological Institute, was elected
vice-chair, also for a two-year term. Moran
formally took over the position in September
from Gerard van der Steenhoven, of the Royal
Netherlands Meteorological Institute, who held
the post for four years.
Working groups tackle
staff survey issues
Three corporate working groups, with representatives
of staff, the management board and the Staff
Association Committee, were established in
March to tackle organisation-wide issues identified
by the 2021 staff survey. The groups presented
recommendations to the management board in
October on workload, diversity and inclusion, people
development and bureaucracy. Work is progressing
on refining the groups’ proposals.
Work begins on childcare centre
Work began on EUMETSAT’s 44-place “LittleOrbiters”
childcare centre in 2022 and was celebrated with a
special cornerstone-laying ceremony on 4 October. The
cornerstone was laid by Director-General Phil Evans,
Referatsleiter DK22 for the Federal Ministry for Digital
and Transport Prof Dr-Ing Hans Moser, and Stadtrat of
the City of Darmstadt Wolfram von Rotberg. The centre
is expected to open in late 2023.
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