A shared goal: protecting people from extreme heat

Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues and friends,

Good morning, and welcome to Bangkok.

We are gathered here this week to talk about heat, in a city which has been battered by heavy rain and floods.  

Our weather – from flooding to heat and drought – is becoming more extreme.

On behalf of WMO, I express my deepest condolences to everyone affected by this disaster and extend our solidarity with all recovery efforts. We understand the urgent demands on the Bangkok Municipal Authority that prevented them from being with us today.  

Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues and friends,

Today, it is an honor for me to open the Global Heat Forum.  

My heartfelt thanks go to our many organizing partners who came together to make this event happen. The Global Heat Health Information Network, is a flagship initiative of the WMO working together with the World Health Organization and many others. We are pleased to be part of Bangkok Climate Action Week, and partnering with the Asian Development Bank, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome.

This Global Heat Forum is especially timely as it coincides with an intensifying El Niño event, which has the potential to be the strongest on record. At WMO, we monitor the Earth's climate every day, and we know from experience that El Niño, literally, turns up the heat. It did so in 2024, the hottest year on record, and we now expect this record will be broken. 

We have never seen an El Niño develop on a temperature baseline as high as it is today. We must be prepared. Now is the window for taking action.

El Niño is established and strengthening, giving Southeast Asia advance warning of changing climate risks. Its effects vary across countries and regions. For Thailand, for example, this means preparing for warmer conditions and rainfall that varies across the country. Some areas may face water shortages and agricultural stress, while flood preparedness remains essential. National forecasts, local water information and timely warnings must guide action to protect people and livelihoods. 

Excellencies, friends,

New maximum daytime and minimum overnight temperature records are not just a figure on a thermometer. They are also a measure of the strain on human health, labour productivity, transport and energy, agriculture and the environment.

Our bodies, our infrastructure, our farms and our homes are not designed for temperatures of more than fourty degrees – even fifty degrees – Celsius.  

We have just heard the UN Secretary-General. WMO supports the Call to Action on Extreme Heat: we are working with our Members to strengthen climate services for health and leveraging the the Early Warnings for All initiative to scale up heat warnings worldwide.  

Much of the harm caused by heat can be prevented. But prevention begins before the emergency. A forecast must give health services time to prepare, employers time to adjust working hours, and communities time to reach those most at risk. Meteorological services and health authorities must agree in advance on what will trigger action, who is responsible, and how that action will be funded. We should not wait for hospitals to fill before putting these arrangements in place.

This is a special gathering you are taking part in - never before have so many sectors come together around one goal: protecting people from extreme heat. Meteorologists and climate scientists, health professionals, researchers, community actors, city planners, business leaders and investors from all around the world are here this week.    

I ask everyone at this forum to seize this unique opportunity to forge alliances to work together, and transform science into proactive, sustainable, scalable, and effective solutions. We have the knowledge and tools to tackle extreme heat. These include early warnings linked to health action plans; climate-smart city planning for cooler homes and streets; and protection for workers in factories, fields and construction sites.

Excellencies, friends,

I call you to focus on the solutions – and be innovative in how we prepare to save lives and protect our economies.  

Escaping heat cannot be a privilege for the few; solutions must be accessible and actionable for all.  

The resources we launch today can support that effort through stronger heat governance, using science to make better informed decisions in business and policy, and providing practical guidance to protect health, wellbeing and livelihoods.

Let us strengthen the governance that brings national meteorological services, health authorities, urban planners, energy providers and architects to the same table.

I invite all of you to invest, and to act. Let‘s unlock solutions to scale heat resilience.

Thank you. 

Read the full Press Release "Global Heat Forum seeks to galvanize action and investment".