The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres, at the ongoing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27), on Monday unveiled a five-year action plan to achieve early warning systems of climate-related disasters in least developed countries of the world.
The plan was unveiled during a meeting of government and UN leaders, financing agencies, ‘Big Tech’ companies and the private sector.
According to the UN Chief, less than half of the Least Developed Countries and only one-third of Small Island Developing States have a multi-hazard early warning system.
To mitigate this, world leaders have been urged to set set a new target investments of $3.1 billion between 2023 and 2027, equivalent to a cost of just 50 cents per person per year.
https://twitter.com/SelwinHart/status/1589659463283511296?t=6nH9coUG6klgwyyk2fmAqw&s=19
“Today @antonioguterres launched a bold & ambitious action plan to achieve early warning for all in 5 years. This will save lives & protect livelihoods.
“It’s heartening to see the level of consensus & support uniting to deliver for people on the front lines of the climate crisis,” Selwin Hart, Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action at the UN disclosed this in a tweet.
Those who are likely to be affected by the climate-related disasters are those who have barely even contributed to the climate crisis and the least protected.
“Vulnerable communities in climate hotspots are being blindsided by cascading climate disasters without any means of prior alert,” he said.
“People in Africa, South Asia, South and Central America, and the inhabitants of small island states are 15 times more likely to die from climate disasters. These disasters displace three times more people than war. And the situation is getting worse.”
Although, early warning systems save lives, but vulnerable communities “have no way of knowing that hazardous weather is on its way”, Mr. Guterres continued.
“Countries with limited early warning coverage have disaster mortality eight times higher than countries with high coverage. The Action Plan launched today sets out the way forward to right this wrong, and protect lives and livelihoods.”
The early warnings target which was first announced in March will address key gaps in understanding disaster risk, monitoring and forecasting, rapid communication, and preparedness and response.
The $3.1 billion figure represents a small fraction of about six percent of the requested $50 billion in adaptation financing, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The UN agency and partners drew up the plan, which was supported by a joint statement signed by 50 countries.
WMO said the need for early warning systems is urgent as the number of recorded disasters has increased five-fold, driven in part by human-induced climate change and more extreme weather.
Even though this trend is expected to continue, half of all countries do not have early warning systems in place, and even fewer have regulatory frameworks to link early warnings to emergency plans.
Coverage is worst for developing countries on the front lines of climate change, namely the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“When it comes to climate change adaptation, early warning systems are widely regarded as the “low-hanging fruit”, said WMO, because they are a relatively cheap and effective way of protecting people and assets.
Furthermore, the Global Commission on Adaptation found that spending just $800 million on these systems in developing countries would avoid losses of $3 billion to $16 billion per year.
“Such progress is only possible with modern science, sustained systematic observing networks, daily international exchange of quality data, access to high-quality early warning products, the translation of forecasts into impacts, plus advances in telecommunications,” said Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General.
To achieve the early warning goal from 2023 to 2027, the UN, governments and partners will work together to make this a reality.
An Advisory Board which will be co-chaired by the heads of WMO and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) will be put in place to implement the actions.
Members will include many of the key partners who helped shape the plan to date, and the Secretary-General will receive progress reports in advance of future annual COP meetings.
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