Talking points 2050 Today high-level event

General introduction

Accurate weather, water and climate data are essential to understanding climate change. We are working hand-in-hand with our 193 Members to provide the essential data that allows us to better understand our climate, and that makes it possible for people to be protected from the impacts of climate change.  

Effects of climate change on WMO’s work and key concerns

How do you see the effects of climate change in your own work/UN agency (health, human rights, refugees) - what are your biggest concerns right now?  

• The climate crisis is THE defining challenge that humanity faces. It is closely intertwined with the inequality crisis. It has cascading impacts on food security, population displacement and migration, health, energy, water. Every single one of the Sustainable Development Goals is affected.
• Displacement due to weather-related events now affects 3 out of 4 forcibly displaced people globally​ (UNHCR).
• Dangerous heat events increasingly claim up to 500,000 lives annually. Rising temperatures exacerbate air and water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dengue​​. (WHO)
• The WMO’s State of the Climate reports show alarming trends, with 2023 as the hottest year on record and 2024 poised to continue this trajectory​. (WMO)
• Key Priority for WMO: Early Warnings for All initiative aims to protect lives, ensuring climate resilience across the world by 2027​. WMO is supporting its Members in implementing efficient early warning systems. This whole support comes with a cost, and WMO is working intensively with partners and development banks to increase the available resources to meet this challenge. Unfortunately, the populations the most affected by natural hazards and extreme weather are also the less equipped to face them. We have a human responsibility to support our national meteorological and hydrological services.
• Our work is of course also highly impacted by the unprecedented increase in greenhouse gases emissions. We have to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the warming.  And we need to strengthen observations and monitoring of our changing climate – including through our WMO Global Greenhouse Gas Watch that was launched this year.  

UN agencies’ collaboration on climate change

How can the UN agencies work together - do you have examples of that already? Or are you pulling in different directions?

• Successful examples of collaboration include WMO's coordination with WHO, UNHCR, and WFP to highlight and address climate-driven food insecurity, displacement, and health crises​.
• Initiatives such as Early Warnings for All, that we are leading with UNDRR, ITU and IFRC, demonstrate joint agency potential to save lives, empower communities, and reduce disaster-related losses​.
• WMO and WHO are working hand in hand on heat-health topics as well, we have created together resources to better understand the consequences of climate change (heat, pollution) on health. The Global Heat-Health Information Network, which is co-sponsored by WMO and WHO, stepped up its #HeatReady campaign. It issued a call to action in June to governments and communities to mobilize targeted prevention measures and early warnings, and provided simple tips for individuals. Heat is a silent killer taking up to half a million lives a year.
• At COP29, UNSG called a high-level event on Delivering Early Warnings for All and Addressing Extreme Heat. There, I stressed the importance of collaboration: even where multi-hazard early warning systems exist, there may be critical gaps along the value chain that must be addressed. And we can address it, if we work together.
• Leveraging cross-agency resources amplifies the UN system's ability to combat climate vulnerabilities while aligning actions with human rights and development goals​.

Addressing governmental inaction amid global challenges

To tackle climate change, governments need to act - are you worried they are not focused, in part because of all the other challenges, such as conflicts in the Middle East or Sudan, or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? (Many governments, post-pandemic, are also cutting back on green initiatives).

• Wars and post-pandemic financial constraints may shift attention from climate commitments. However, neglecting climate action exacerbates vulnerabilities globally​.
• Governments must integrate climate resilience into recovery strategies to achieve stability and progress simultaneously​.
• Delayed climate action leads to spiraling costs across health, infrastructure, and human rights​.
• The climate crisis  demands a collective, "whole-of-society" approach, reaching across sectors and disciplines.  

Role of the private sector and Geneva’s influence

What about the private sector (here we could make the connection with WEF perhaps). Can Geneva help to encourage collaboration and cooperation?  

• We are benefiting from the presence of international organizations like the World Trade Organization or the World Economic Forum in Geneva, but the whole business and finance ecosystem in Geneva makes it a fantastic place to initiate collaborations and partnerships.
• A new report published by the World Meteorological Organization and the World Trade Organization points to the role that trade can play to help supply meet demand for electricity from renewable sources. Just as shipping lanes, air corridors, highways and internet cable networks facilitate the movement of goods and services in the global economy, cross-border electricity interconnector cables offer a mechanism to get renewable electricity from where it is abundant to where it is needed.
• The business community is central to achieving Early Warnings for All, and we partner with the World Economic Forum to spread the word about this. Not only will we not get to the resource-mobilization level that we need without their engagement, but they will make warnings better, more targeted, more trusted, and overall help people be safer from the impacts of disasters.
• According to the WEF, businesses are valuable for early warnings for 3 reasons - one is resourcing – this is beyond the capacity in most cases of national governments to do this on their own. The second, is data – Businesses hold a lot of data that can be useful for developing and targeting warnings. And the third is downstream – How do we deliver warnings from the issuing authority to the individual or the community that needs it? It is often done via trusted platforms that are operated by private companies.
• When investing in early warnings, you can have a return on investment of 1 to 9, that means that for each dollar you put in early warnings, you will get a benefit of 9 dollars. This is at the global scale. But at the continental scale in Africa for example, this return on investment moves to 1 to 19, because livelihoods, people and infrastructure are protected.  

A Message of Hope and Urgency to Member States

The world needs the UN to coordinate efforts to tackle climate change, what is your message to member states and the international community? Can you see reasons to be hopeful we can meet this challenge?  

• The UN system’s role in harmonizing efforts ensures resources and expertise are directed effectively toward climate action​.
• The transition to renewable energy promises a cleaner, fairer future, improving access to electricity and fostering global development​.
• Early Warnings for All initiative showcases how concrete, timely measures can save lives, protect livelihoods, and uphold human rights​.
• But we need to step up support for climate change adaptation through climate information services and the Early Warnings for All initiative of the UN Secretary-General.