ABSTRACT
The interface with the user is also an interface on price policy, that is, what fees (if any) the user will be charged for the data provided via an ESIS. The funding of operational systems is a key component of global environmental monitoring and was a recurrent theme of discussion during the GMES Forum held in Brussels in July 2002. Pricing policy is central to the funding of operational systems because GMES systems and services have to have sustainable funding in order to become truly operational. Broadly speaking, three scenarios can be advanced that encompass distinct approaches to price policy and hence to operational funding:
• Scenario 1. European funding for global environmental monitoring considered as a public good. Environmental data and information could be provided free of charge (or perhaps at marginal cost prices) to users as a raw material. This scenario is used in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Resolution 40 and in the data policy of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), where essential data for mainstream applications and for research are made available at a marginal cost price. It is also used in the US for all federally-produced data. An interesting but open question in Europe concerns who is to fund the environmental monitoring required to support climate monitoring to fulfil obligations that arise from the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Such monitoring is seen by many as a government responsibility where the climate monitoring data is provided to society as a public good.
