Atmospheric processes exert a strong influence on a range of human activities, ecosystem services and hence human development. Accordingly, there is now a demand from a variety of sectors for weather and climate information. In many ways this has led to the emergence of climate risk management (CRM) as a distinct field of pure and applied research. A clear manifestation of the global recognition of the potential significance of climate information for risk management is the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).