UN chief announces plan to provide global early warnings on climate change

Sharm el-sheikh, Egypt | BAZZUP | Monday, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres unveiled a climate action plan to deliver worldwide early warnings about climate change over the next five years.

Guterres stated at a summit of world leaders during the ongoing 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that it will cost the equivalent of 50 cents per person per year over the next five years to reach everyone on Earth with early warnings against increasingly extreme and dangerous weather.

According to a UN report, the Executive Action Plan for the Early Warnings for All Initiative proposes for initial new targeted investments of $3.1 billion between 2023 and 2027.

“This is a modest portion (about 6 percent) of the requested 50 billion U.S. dollars in adaptation financing,” said Guterres, adding that it would encompass disaster risk information, observations and forecasting, readiness and response, and early warning communication.

The plan was developed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and its partners with the assistance of a joint declaration signed by 50 countries.

While the number of recorded disasters has increased, “half of the world’s governments lack early warning systems, and even fewer have regulatory frameworks to link early warnings to emergency plans,” according to Guterres.

The numbers are significantly worse for developing nations on the front lines of climate change, particularly for the least developed nations and Small Island Developing States, he said.

Early warning systems are widely regarded as the “low-hanging fruit” for climate change adaptation, according to the WMO’s website, because they are a relatively inexpensive and effective method of protecting people and assets from hazards such as storms, floods, heatwaves, and tsunamis, to name a few.