Ceremony

This year's World Meteorological Day celebration shone the spotlight on climate action. The ceremony embraced all the key players involved in tackling the climate crisis: the UN family, national meteorological and hydrological services, youth and civil society, policy makers, and the private sector.

On 21 March 2024, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) partnered with the UN Development Programme to launch a climate action campaign to raise awareness globally and to mobilize society to act. The campaign launched on television and social channels and live on stage at the WMO. It was supported by national meteorological and hydrological services, weather presenters and media outlets around the world.

The message of the campaign is about ambition, commitment and action from both policy makers and from individuals. If we all join together, we can keep the 1.5° degree ambition alive.


Programme

15:00-15:15
Welcome and introduction – by WMO Secretary-General Prof. Celeste Saulo and WMO President Abdulla Al Mandous and Agi Veres, Director, Geneva office, United Nations Development Programme, and launch of the UNDP climate action campaign. 

15:15-15:20
Weather Kids Launch

15:20-15:22
French Weather Kids Forecast – by Noam and interview with his mother

15:25-15:30
How the weather has changed – Philippe Jeanneret, Swiss television weather presenter

15:30-15:35
Climate Promise (video) – Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Actor

15:35-15:45
Fireside Conversation – Storytelling and Science.  Boaz Paldi, UNDP Chief Creative Officer and Lauren Stuart, WMO Scientific Officer

15:45-15:50
Move the Money (video) 

15:50-15:55
EarthX – Rajan Singh, CEO, EarthX

15:55-16:15
High-level panel discussion on "How to keep the 1.5° goal of the Paris Agreement alive?" (see details below)

Panelists: 

16:15-16:20
The Weather Company (video) – Randi Stipes, CMO, The Weather Company

16:20-16:25
Concluding remarks by WMO Secretary-General Prof. Celeste Saulo and Agi Veres, Director, Geneva office, United Nations Development Programme

16:25-16:30
Early warning systems to save lives (video)

How to keep the 1.5° goal alive?

The WMO State of Global Climate report reminds everyone of the urgency to tackle the climate crisis. Everywhere in the world, people are already suffering from the negative impact of climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, ocean heat and acidification, ice and glacier retreat affects human health, economies and ecosystems. Science shows that negative impacts are increasing and some changes risk being irreversible.

Climate action is essential to sustainable development, including good health, access to water and sanitation and freedom from poverty and hunger. There is no avenue for human development without prioritizing climate action.

The Paris Agreement on climate change laid the ground to design robust climate action through the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and the ratcheting mechanism that obliges governments to review and enhance their goals every five years.

Everyone agrees on the need to abide by the lower 1.5° target of the Paris ambitions. Can we still reach it and under which conditions? How is it that despite scientific evidences and a wealth of climate data, public policies are not going faster and wider? What is expected from the different actors – including the public, corporate and financial sector? How do young people have a say in increasing climate ambition and contribute to moving the needle?