Background
Climate change is the defining challenge of our time.
The global mean temperature is approximately 1.2 °C warmer than pre-industrial times. We are far off track from reducing global greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to avert the worst impacts of climate change and limit temperature rise to within 1.5 °C of the pre-industrial baseline in line with the Paris Agreement. This has adverse consequences across the SDGs.
Alongside climate mitigation, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has called for a breakthrough on adaptation and resilience in 2021, with significant increases in the volume and predictability of adaptation finance. This includes initiatives to strengthen forecast-based resilience building approaches in order to ensure all people, especially the most vulnerable in SIDS and LDCs, can adapt and be more resilient to the socioeconomic consequences of inevitable future weather and climate events.
Science-based, data-driven weather and climate services, such as early warning systems, are the foundation for effective adaptation measures. These services are proven to provide significant return on investments, yielding benefits across all 17 SDGs. Yet large capacity gaps remain, particularly in the countries most vulnerable to weather and climate events.
The Alliance for Hydromet Development was launched at COP25 in Madrid, bringing together UN Agencies and other major institutions working in international development, humanitarian aid and climate finance. These organizations collectively committed to close the critical hydromet capacity gap in, by supporting high-quality weather forecasts, early warning systems, and global climate information and data, collectively referred to as “hydromet”.
Objective
This high-level event will bring together the heads of the UN agencies; major international development, humanitarian, and climate finance actors; and senior country representatives to raise awareness of the foundational role of hydromet development, in underpinning climate action, and resilient and sustainable development. Interpretation will be provided in all UN languages
The event will launch the first Hydromet Gap Report, the flagship publication of the Alliance for Hydromet Development, with a presentation of findings related to the hydromet capacity gap, and recommendations for priority actions to close the gap –including the creation of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF).
Additional details, including invitation flyer, speakers, and agenda are available under "Documents"
Connection Details
Interpretation will be provided in all UN languages
Join Zoom Meeting here.
Meeting ID: 981 1427 6073
Passcode: 155319
or
Find your local number: https://wmo-int.zoom.us/u/acgk8FkrRJ