This Monday, the UN called on governments, institutions and businesses to fund the Early Warning Action Plan for All, a network to save lives and reduce economic losses from extreme weather events so that they can be anticipated.
The plan, devised by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), requires an investment of $3.1 billion between 2023 and 2027 and aims to enable everyone in the world to anticipate and protect themselves against extreme events, such as floods and drought.
The initiative, which is already supported by 50 countries, was presented Monday by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, meeting with government representatives, United Nations agencies, funding agencies, technology and the private sector, at the climate conference (COP27), which began Sunday in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh.
The initial investment for creating this network is equivalent to 50 cents per person per year, while the benefits it will bring in the face of an increasingly “extreme and dangerous” climate are “enormous,” said António Guterres.
Therefore, he believed that resilience to climate change should include the ability to access information to anticipate storms, heat waves, floods and droughts.
“The steady increase in greenhouse gas emissions is fueling extreme weather events around the world (…) that are costing lives, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage and loss, and displacing three times as many people as wars. . . Half of the humanity has already entered the danger zone,” he warned.
According to UN data, the number of disasters has increased fivefold in recent years due to man-made climate change and the increase in extreme weather events, a trend that is expected to continue.
However, half of the world’s countries lack early warning systems and standards to link them to emergency plans, especially in developing countries that are more vulnerable to climate change.
“Early warnings save lives and yield huge economic benefits” as just 24 hours advance notice of an imminent threat can reduce damage by 30%, said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas.
Allocating $800 million to these early warning systems in developing countries could prevent losses of between $3 and $16 billion a year, according to data from the World Commission on Adaptation.
Source: DN
