ICSU, the International Council for Science.
The sponsor of three global observing systems: the Global Ocean Observing System, the Global Climate Observing System, and the Global Terrestrial Observing System.
ICSU formed partnerships with UN bodies to develop the three systems. Their stated goal is better monitoring of the global Earth system. The systems were planned and launched as technologies for environmental observations evolved quickly and governments began to accept that global environmental problems mattered. ICSU did not solely control these systems or their funding.
It shows how one science body and UN partners built the shared tools used to watch the planet, while control and money stayed spread across many hands.