Weather laws typically address the establishment and operation of a national meteorological service (NMS), which is usually granted the exclusive right to issue weather warnings as well as to address issues such as weather modification, liability for incorrect weather forecasts, weather observation, and the importation and placing on the market of meteorological equipment. Moreover, some weather laws go further and establish a legal framework for a range of public and private actors, collectively known as the Global Weather Enterprise (GWE). Besides the NMS, the enterprise includes academia, research funding bodies, equipment manufacturers, and a growing number of commercial weather service providers. A big problem for many low- and middle-income countries is the underfunding of the NMS - which, in turn, affects its ability to collect the basic observation data needed for weather service provision. Using a weather law to set up the NMS as an independent legal entity may enable it to generate additional income from the provision of commercial weather services, although the core public tasks of an NMS will always require public funding. This report breaks new ground by surveying the existing national weather laws and by asking whether the main obstacle to better public-private engagement the absence or the presence of a national weather law is. A key finding is that weather laws alone will usually not be sufficient to promote effective public-private engagement. Just as important are the intellectual property rights (IPRs) in data generated and held by the NMS (usually copyright and database rights) and the extent to which the data policy of the NMS permits the use and re-use of publicly funded weather data by commercial weather service providers.
Authors
- Citation
- “ Hodgson, Stephen . 2024 . Weather, Law, and Public-Private Engagement . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41937 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Other ESW Reports
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1596/41937
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34341984
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34341984
- Pages
- 82
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- World
- Report
- 191303
- Rights
- CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/igo
- UNIT
- Disaster Climate Risk Management (GFDRR)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41937
- date disclosure
- 2024-06-17
- theme
- Disaster Risk Management,Disaster Preparedness,Disaster Risk Reduction,Environment and Natural Resource Management,Climate change,Urban and Rural Development,Adaptation
Files
Table of Contents
- _Hlk160636299 13
- _Hlk164856960 79
- _Hlk164857053 81
- Abbreviations and Acronyms 10
- Executive Summary 11
- Key messages 11
- Acknowledgments 9
-  11 11
- Introduction 12
- International Weather Law 13
- National Weather Laws 13
- Establishment and Operation of the NMS 13
- NMS Governance, Public Tasks, and Commercial Activities 14
- Weather Laws and the Private Sector 14
- Data, Information, and Intellectual Property Rights 14
- Weather Laws and Public-Private Engagement 16
- Introduction 17
- 1.1 Objectives of This Study 18
- Endnote 19
- 2 20
- International Weather Law 20
- 2.1 World Meteorological Organization 21
- 2.1.1 The WMO Convention 21
- 2.1.2 Technical Regulations and Other Instruments 22
- 2.2 Other International Agreements 23
- 2.2.1 The Chicago Convention 23
- 2.2.2 The UN Watercourse Convention 24
- 2.2.3 Regional Agreements 24
- Endnotes 25
- 3 26
- National Weather Legislation 26
- 3.1 Primary or Secondary Legislation? 27
- 3.2 What’s in a Name? 28
- 3.3 Legislation in Federal Jurisdictions 30
- 3.4 The Purpose of a Weather Law 30
- 3.5 Scope of the Legislation 31
- Endnotes 31
- 4 32
- Weather Laws and the NMS 32
- 4.1 NMS Establishment as an Independent Legal Entity 33
- 4.2 NMS Establishment without Independent Legal Personality 34
- 4.3 NMS Governance Arrangements 35
- 4.3.1 Management Board 36
- 4.3.2 Director 37
- 4.3.3 Advisory Board 38
- 4.4 Role of the Minister/Ministry or Government 39
- 4.4.1 Oversight 39
- 4.4.2 Power to Issue Directions 39
- 4.5 Financing 40
- 4.6 General or “Housekeeping” Provisions 42
- 4.6.1 Staff 42
- 4.6.2 Accounting Rules 42
- 4.6.3 Opening Offices 43
- 4.7 Public Tasks 43
- 4.7.1 Planning and Policy 43
- 4.7.2 Meteorological Observation and Data Management 44
- 4.7.3 Analysis and Forecasting 44
- 4.7.4 Research 45
- 4.7.5 International Aspects 46
- 4.7.6 Warnings 47
- 4.7.7 Emergency Situations/Disaster Response 48
- 4.8 Commercial Tasks 48
- Endnotes 50
- Weather Laws and Weather Sector Issues 51
- 5.1 Weather Modification 51
- 5.2 Liability 52
- 5.3 Weather Observation Networks and Infrastructure 52
- 5.4 Importation and Placing on the Market of Meteorological Equipment 54
- 5.5 Some Idiosyncratic Provisions 54
- 5.6 Offences 55
- Endnote 55
- 6 56
- Weather Legislation and the Private Sector 56
- 6.1 A Wide Range of Approaches to Private Sector Engagement 57
- 6.1.1 Silence 57
- 6.1.3 Recognition 57
- 6.1.4 Active Promotion 59
- 6.2 Limits of Weather Laws in Promoting Private Sector Engagement 59
- Data, Information, and Intellectual Property Rights 61
- 7.1 Intellectual Property Rights 62
- 7.1.1 Copyright and Database Rights 62
- 7.1.2 Contractual Licenses 63
- 7.1.3 Data Policy 64
- 7.2 The Move toward Open Data Policies 65
- 7.2.1 United States 65
- 7.2.2 European Union 65
- 7.2.3 World Meteorological Organization 66
- 7.3 Provisions on Data and IPRs in Weather Legislation 67
- Endnotes 68
- How Weather Laws Support Public-Private Engagement 69
- 8.1 How Weather Laws Benefit the National Meteorological Service 69
- 8.2 Weather, Law, and the Private Sector 70
- 8.2.1 Regulation 70
- 8.2.2 Access to Data 71
- 8.2.3 Competition Issues 72
- Conclusions 73
- Appendix A. Legal Instruments Cited 75
- International Laws 75
- Regional Agreements 75
- European Union 76
- National Weather Laws 76
- Bibliography 79
- Box 2.1. Weather References in the Paris Agreement 21
- Box 2.2. Functions of the World Meteorological Organization Congress 22
- Box 3.1. Laws, Regulations, and Regulatory Frameworks 28
- Box 3.2. Examples of Hydrometeorological and Meteorological and Hydrological Legislation 29
- Box 3.3. Canada’s Weather Modification Information Act 30
- Box 3.4. Swiss Weather Law and Federal Funding 30
- Box 4.1. How Public Law and Private Law Differ 33
- Box 4.2. National Meteorological Service Management Board Composition 36
- Box 4.3. German Weather Service: Balanced Books 42
- Box 4.4. Functions and Powers of the Mauritius Meteorological Services 45
- Box 4.5. Weather Law and Direct References to the WMO 47
- Box 4.6. Weather Laws and the ICAO 47
- Box 4.7. The Tasks of the Tanzania Meteorological Authority 50
- Box 6.1. Specification of Global Weather Enterprise Participants in Russia’s Weather Law 56
- Box 6.2. US Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act 57
- Box 6.3. Korea’s Weather Industry Promotion Act 60
- Box 7.1. The Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute’s Specification of Data Use 65
- Box 8.1. Competition Law and the MeteoSwiss Case 72
- Table 3.1. Adoption of Weather Laws, by Country and Year 27
- Table 7.1. Theoretical Weather Data Table 63
