The APEC Climate Center (APCC) held the first virtual APCC Working Group Meeting 2020 with 10 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Member Economies.

At this meeting, representatives from the National Hydro-Meteorological Services (NHMSs) from 10 APEC member economies shared their current status of climate prediction and services and the status of extreme events in recent years, including communication strategies. Based on this, the meeting participants of APEC member economies and APCCd had the chance to present opinions on use and improvement of climate prediction and its information provision service and to discuss the right direction of climate service.

By so doing, the meeting participants tried to find ways to effectively monitor and respond to extreme events across the Asia-Pacific region and to produce and use the necessary climate prediction information in order to cope with them.

The meeting was attended by climate forecasting and service working groups from the National Hydro-Meteorological Services (NHMSs) from 10 APEC member economies including Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Canada, and the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The meeting was chaired by Mr. LimZe Hui, Director of the Technical Training Division at the Malaysian Meteorological Department. 7 participants, including Dr. Won-Tae Kwon, the Executive Director, attended this meeting from APCC.

The APEC Climate Center collected opinions from the working group members on the use of APCC's climate prediction and provision services to improve it in the future. Strengthening cooperation with APEC member economies to enhance climate prediction capabilities, will also elevate climate information users’ satisfaction related to APCC’s extreme climate event monitoring information across the Asia-Pacific region.

The APCC Working Group is made up of representatives from the National Hydro-Meteorological Services (NHMSs) from all APEC Member Economies and relevant participating institutions. The Working Group members facilitate the exchange of regional climate information, particularly climate prediction information among the APEC member economies. The group works closely with the APCC Climate Research Department in the improvement of the multi-model ensemble (MME) forecasting system and for the development of new forecast application areas.