Pooling Global Wisdom to Address Global Climate Challenges

Dr CHEN, Zhenlin, Excellencies, Dear Colleagues,

It is a great honour to join you at this sub-forum on “Pooling Global Wisdom for a Climate-Resilient Future.”

I would like to sincerely thank the Chinese authorities and the China Meteorological Administration for this opportunity to share my reflections and engage in this important dialogue with all of you.

Excellencies, Colleagues,

Meteorology is undergoing a profound transformation. What was once primarily about forecasting the weather is now about anticipating impacts, managing risks, and supporting decisions across entire systems.  

Today, advances in artificial intelligence, data integration and sensor technologies are enabling us to better understand complex phenomena, from the phenological cycles of crops in precision agriculture to the cascading risks of flash floods, droughts, floods, landslides and wildfires.  

In this context, during my recent visit to Chongqing and Shaanxi, and in the MAZU workshop, I saw how these innovations are being translated into operational solutions, connecting science to services on the ground. But technology alone is not enough.  

The real progress lies in how we connect the full chain, from observation and forecasting to communication and early action, bringing together all actors to ensure that information reaches those who need it most, at the right time, in the right way. This is what defines truly people-centred early warning systems.

Excellencies,  

Changes in the climate system globally are driving shifts in the frequency and intensity of climate extremes. On a regular basis, intense heat, heavy rainfall, tropical cyclones and entrenched drought cause disruption and devastation, highlighting the vulnerability of our inter-connected economies and societies.

The abnormal is the new norm. For instance, in 2025, a cyclone formed in a stretch of ocean where no tropical cyclone had ever been recorded in the satellite era. The death toll in Indonesia was over 1,200 people.  

In Mozambique, two cyclones struck within weeks of each other — Dikeledi in January, Jude in March. Together they affected well over a million people, displaced nearly half a million, and devastated cropland across the country. Communities had barely begun to recover from one before the next arrived A single monsoon season claimed more than 1,000 lives in Pakistan.

The question is whether early warnings effectively reached the people who needed them and led to early action.  

All too often, the answer is ‘no’, or ‘not enough’ .  

I am therefore pleased that WMO is working closely with the China International Development Cooperation Agency and CMA under a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding to remedy this. Together, we will be undertaking a pilot project in Libya, aimed at strengthening early warning capabilities through both hardware and software improvements. Further project proposals are being developed in consultation with CMA. Through these joint efforts, I am confident that we will strengthen global early warning systems and contribute to a safer and more resilient future.

Colleagues, friends,  

As I mentioned at the Forum opening, WMO's State of the Global Climate 2025 report confirms that the past eleven years are the hottest on record.

Greenhouse gas concentrations are at the highest level in more than 800,000 years. The ocean continues to warm and become more acidic. It has been absorbing the equivalent of about eighteen times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades. Annual sea ice extent in the Arctic was at record low in 2025, Antarctic sea ice extent was the third lowest on record, and glacier melt continued unabated, according to the report.

The science is clear. However a gap remains between what we know and what we do, between science and action.  

Early warning systems are essential for climate-resilient societies.

We need to pool the global wisdom in this room and strengthen connections between those countries that already have robust systems in place and those that need them most.

The good news is that early warning systems work.  Since 2015, the number of countries with multi-hazard early warning systems has more than doubled. WMO has seen, time and again, that when meteorological data flows across borders and institutions – when a forecast reaches a farmer, a coastal community, a city planner – lives and livelihoods are protected.

But 40% of countries still lack these systems.  Those lacking accurate forecasts are concentrated in the Global South, disproportionally affecting the most vulnerable communities in the world. This must change.  

The international community agreed at COP30 to measure adaptation progress through a new set of global indicators. But without functioning meteorological infrastructure and observation networks and without strong National Meteorological and Hydrological Services that can actually generate the underlying data, those indicators will measure absence rather than progress. Early warning systems are a foundation of adaptation.

This is why WMO co-leads the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative, and why the Global Development Initiative's commitment to practical, South-led cooperation is so valuable to us.

I propose that this sub-forum commit to three concrete actions:

First, accelerate universal coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems in developing nations. We can draw on China's considerable technical expertise and CIDCA's convening capacity as a pillar of delivery.

Second, invest in the meteorological infrastructure that underpins everything else: the observation networks, the forecasting capacity, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services without which no early warning system can function. This is where development cooperation and climate science must meet.

Third, scale up South-South technical exchange — sharing technologies, forecasting models, and trained personnel across the Global South in ways that are practical and built to last.

These are not aspirations. They are achievable.  

The expertise to deliver them sits in this room.

The Global Development Initiative speaks of building a community of shared future. WMO's contribution to that future is to ensure that every country – regardless of its size or capacity – has access to the science it needs to protect its people.

Extreme weather does not wait for the next summit or the next report. But we can act before the next disaster does.

Early warnings are not merely a technical output. They are a promise – that no community should face a preventable catastrophe in silence. Let us leave Beijing and act on that promise.  

Let me once again thank the China International Development Cooperation Agency and to the China Meteorological Administration, Dr. Chen and his team for their hospitality and for their leadership. The GDI  reflects a commitment to shared development as a program of action, and we are proud to contribute to this effort.