World Met Day ‘an important reminder’ of the need to invest in early warning
By the Climate Centre
Celebrations organized by national weather services for World Meteorological Day were today Monday taking place worldwide, on the theme of closing the early warning gap, including at WMO headquarters in Geneva. (The special day itself, marked on 23 March every year, fell yesterday.)
The UN Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative – launched at COP 28 and intended to bring the entire population of the world under a protective warning umbrella by 2027 – is now at the halfway point; as of last year “108 countries report having some capacity for multi-hazard early warning systems, more than double the 52 countries in 2015,” WMO says.
There has been “strong progress in saving lives, protecting livelihoods, and strengthening resilience across countries and communities.” But the WMO adds: “Now is the time to act. By closing the early warning gap together, we can create a safer, more resilient world.”
Describing 23 March as “an important reminder” and renewing his call for investment in early warning early action, IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said on X/Twitter yesterday that in many cases, “we can prevent extreme weather from becoming disasters by forecasting what’s coming and protecting communities ahead of time.”
‘Potential to transform lives’
Climate Centre Director Aditya Bahadur said today that it “has consistently championed the use of early warning early action as an instrument to tackle the climate crisis.
“With the IFRC as global lead for the fourth EW4All pillar on preparedness to respond to warnings, as members of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement we are proud to contribute to major initiatives that can transform the lives of the most vulnerable across the world.”
Last week, the WMO’s State of the Global Climate report confirmed 2024 was probably the first calendar year to be more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, with a mean temperature of 1.55°C above the 1850–1900 average, the warmest year in an observational record going back 175 years.
Record greenhouse gas concentrations combined with El Niño and other factors to drove the record heat last year, the report says.
Long-term warming averaged over decades remains below 1.5°C – the Paris threshold – but sea-level rise, the rate of which has doubled in the satellite era, and ocean warming may be irreversible for hundreds of years.
‘Wake-up call for lives, economies, planet’
The global report also found the 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents on record were all in the past 18 years, the three lowest Antarctic-ice extents were in the past three years, and the largest three-year loss of glacier mass on record was in the past three years.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said last week: “While a single year above 1.5°C of warming does not indicate that the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement are out of reach, it is a wake-up call that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and the planet,”
Tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and other hazards in 2024 led to the highest number of new displacements in the past 16 years, the UN says, contributed to worsening food crises, and caused massive economic losses.
The new State of the Global Climate report includes a detailed infographic of just over 150 “unprecedented” extreme-weather events – meaning impacts more severe than any previously recorded – and just under 300 “unusual” ones.
The report is one of a series intended to support decision-making published ahead of World Meteorological Day, World Water Day on 22 March and World Glaciers Day on 21 March, including an update on the La Niña event that emerged in December is now expected to be short-lived.
An IFRC photo illustrating World Water Day this year, when it said access to safe water and sanitation is a basic human right. Glacier melt, highlighted in the 2024 State of the Global Climate report, contributes to water shortages and intensifies the risk of disasters “way beyond mountainous areas”, it added. (File photo: IFRC)