Finance and climate communities want to close weather and climate data gaps

The finance and meteorological communities came together at COP27 to discuss how to close weather and climate data gaps and how to use climate data for more effective economic policies. 

The session on 10 November was co-hosted by the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and the World Meteorological Organization. It demonstrated the groundswell of support for the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), which aims to mobilize additional funding to ensure that the most vulnerable countries can acquire and exchange the essential weather and climate data that underpins all adaptation efforts.

“Climate data is economic data,” said Mari Pangestu, Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank Group.

This was echoed by Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund.

“Science based solutions and data are more important than ever. The quality of climate analysis depends on the data. Unfortunately, while we have come a long way to expand and improve weather observations there are currently gaps in weather data,” he said.

Weather and climate data is essential for both finance ministries and the climate-science community to model the future, assess physical risks, and formulate climate strategies and policies.

“We need the climate data and to match it with our economic and financial data. Our hope is that the integration of this data will help and inform our assessments with physical and risks to global financial system and stability,” said Alexia Latortue, Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, United States Department of the Treasury

WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas highlighted the interdependency. In the USA, two thirds of Gross Domestic Product is dependent on the weather – for instance agriculture, energy and the aviation sectors, he said.

The Caribbean island of Dominica lost the equivalent of 800 percent of its GDP in a hurricane in 2017, setting it back many years in socio-economic development.

Many African countries routinely suffer huge losses from flooding and drought in proportion to their GDP.

“It’s 20 times cheaper to mitigate climate change than to live with consequences of that.

For every one dollar you invest in a meteorological service, you gain 10 dollars,” he told the event at the World Bank pavilion.

Early Warnings for All

SOFF is one of the lynchpins in the new Early Warnings for All initiative, which seeks to reach everyone on earth in the next five years. The priority targets of the early warnings initiative are least developed countries and small island developing states – and it is precisely these most vulnerable countries which have big data gaps.

SOFF and its funding partners are rapidly stepping up their efforts. Eight initial partners have already made a financial contribution to the SOFF UN Fund: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, the United States and the Nordic Development Fund that serves as a co-chair of the SOFF Steering Committee. And support is growing at COP27. Earlier this week, Spanish President Pedro Sanchez announced a financial contribution from his country, and Norway has also pledged a substantial increase in its contribution.

SOFF has initially identified 26 Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States as a priority. Madagascar is one of them.

“The gap in data and failure in international exchange data is mainly a financial issue, and linked to the allocation of budget which does not cover the cost of maintenance or spare parts,” said Nirivololona Raholijao, Director General, Bureau of Climate and Meteorology, Madagascar

“SOFF is a good opportunity to fill these gaps,” she said. “We are grateful to the donors of SOFF for helping countries in need to improve early warnings and forecasts for the benefit of humanity.”

Earlier this year, Madagascar was hit by six tropical storms and cyclones in less than one month. It left more than 200 dead and impacted more than 150,000. The southern part of the Indian Ocean island has been wracked by drought.

Why do the data gaps matter?

“Weather is connected, the Earth is round. Every single weather balloon which is launched in Madagascar will improve global weather forecasts,” said Florian Pappenberger, Deputy Director-General of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).