The WMO’s Executive Council (EC) met in virtual session from 14 to 25 June. With a focus on data exchange, observations and climate and water action, EC considered a data policy update to help the WMO community strengthen and better sustain monitoring and prediction of all Earth-system components.

The eighteenth session of the World Meteorological Congress (Cg-18) with the intention of supporting the Strategic Plan of WMO, adopted the restructuring of the technical commissions into two, namely, the Commission for Observation, Infrastructure and Information Systems (Infrastructure Commission or INFCOM) and the Commission for Weather, Climate, Water and Related Environmental Services and Applications (Services Commission or SERCOM).

WMO Congress (Cg-18) adopted the restructuring of the technical commissions into two, namely, the Commission for Observation, Infrastructure and Information Systems (Infrastructure Commission or INFCOM) and the Commission for Weather, Climate, Water and Related Environmental Services and Applications (Services Commission or SERCOM).

On 10 June 2019 WMO Congress “decides (amongst others) that the following ongoing hydrological activities and systems …. are fundamental pillars that support the WMO Strategic Plan and its further development.”

As part of the High Quality Global Data Management Framework for Climate (HQ-GDMFC), an International Expert Group on Climate Data Modernisation (IEG-CDM) with experts from various disciplines developed an approach for reviewing and cataloguing trusted datasets for informing on key climate indicators.

In a letter to Mr. Gerhard Adrian, President of the Deutscher Wetterdienst and Permanent Representative of Germany to WMO, WMO Secretary-General Mr. Petteri Taalas expressed his appreciation and gratitude to Germanys past support to WMO’s water related activities at the Federal Institute of Hydrology.

The 15^th Session of the Commission for Hydrology (CHy) was held from 07 – 13 December 2016 in Rome, Italy. 140 representatives from 57 WMO member countries and 11 international organisations attended. Results relevant to the activities of the GRDC are briefly summarized.

The WMO Secretary General thanks Germany for the constant support for WMO's water-related programs.

At its 2015 gathering, WMO Congress recognized the continued support of the government of Germany to the GRDC over the past 27 years and called on Members to continue to improve the provision of streamflow data to the GRDC. Congress reaffirms Resolution 25 (Cg-XIII) as an essential cornerstone in the efforts to seamlessly address weather, climate and water issues from scientific research to policy development and operational implementation and Congress urges Member States to comply with Resolution 25 (Cg-XIII, 1999) and thus to jointly address the challenges societies face with regard to climate change and the consequences of global changes.