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World Metrology Day 2024

20 May 2024 is World Metrology Day, a celebration marking 149 years since the signing of the Metre Convention in Paris, France in 1875.

This year’s theme is ‘we measure today for a sustainable tomorrow’.

Sustainability is a key aspect of the European Green Deal, which lays out the EU’s ambitions to become the first climate-neutral continent, and metrology has a vital role to play, from improving the efficiency of renewable energy sources, to reducing the amount of waste generated by industry, to developing new ways to monitor key climate variables.

This year is also the first time World Metrology Day is recognised as an official UNESCO international day.

The resolution was adopted by the 42nd session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2023 and has opened new paths for collaboration, promotion and education around metrology.

The EURAMET community is working to underpin all aspects of metrology for sustainability through its Technical Committees and European Metrology Networks and specifically fostering research through European Metrology Research Programmes and the European Partnership on Metrology.

If you’re interested to learn more about the community’s work in a specific area of sustainability, check out the EURAMET World Metrology Day 2024 webpage to see highlights from selected Joint Research Projects through case studies and news stories. You can also follow the EURAMET LinkedIn and X/Twitter accounts where results from joint research projects working to develop metrology for sustainability are being highlighted.

EURAMET’s Chairperson Jörn Stenger comments:

“This year’s theme on sustainability is another example for the underpinning and cross-cutting nature of metrology. The challenges ahead call for a coordinated European metrology response building on the needs arising from the transition of the energy supply, protection of the environment, a strong, sovereign, and competitive European industry, digital transformation, circular economy, developments of the health system, and resilience of European infrastructures. The EURAMET community is and has been very active in fostering metrology in these fields and has just recently published a White Paper that outlines the vision of a European Metrology Agenda for the decade to come.”

The European Cooperation in Legal Metrology (WELMEC), the primary source in Europe for trusted advice on legal metrology issues, is also supporting sustainability through their work. For example, preparing a set of essential requirements for e-vehicle charging and hydrogen refilling stations, new rules which will contribute to sustainable, affordable and clean energy transportation options to reduce pollution and improve health and well-being.
Sustainable measurements are also being used in smart electrical energy meters to determine better ways to manage energy, especially in the cooling systems that are becoming more common as global warming increases temperatures around the world, and to introduce alternative fuels like hydrogen or compressed gases.

"I am pleased to inform that WELMEC, just recently on request from the European Commission, has developed ideas how to amend the European legislation to take on board measuring instruments playing a crucial role in sustainability, in transport at least, like charging stations for electromobility and hydrogen refuelling stations,”

says Pavel Klenovsky, Chairperson of WELMEC.

The 2024 poster to advertise World Metrology Day has been designed by Turkish National Metrology Institute TÜBİTAK UME in association with EURAMET.

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