UNSpecial N° 693 • Mars 2010
60 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
How will the weather be tomorrow, next week or during the next season? Is the climate changing? What will be the implications on the water cycle? Those questions may differ in importance for each one of us, but the more informative the answers, the better shall we be able to plan and to organize our future activities.
Every day, meteorologists and hydrologists across the world collect, analyze and exchange the information underlying these answers. Since the weather knows no political borders, it is not surprising that by 1873 nations were already collaborating in weather services, almost one hundred and forty years ago, through WMO’s predecessor, the International Meteorological Organization (IMO). Then sixty years ago, on 23 March 1950, the entry into force of the WMO Convention established a new intergovernmental framework to facilitate international cooperation in the provision of weather services. From the beginning, such cooperation was indeed the hallmark of WMO. The cold war was no impediment, so international cooperation flourished even during those difficult years. The decision to incorporate hydrology within the scope of WMO was adopted in 1959 and today, with 189 Members, WMO is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on weather, climate and water.
WMO facilitates around the clock the provision and exchange of meteorological, hydrological and related geophysical information from all across the globe. Data is collected by over 10,000 land stations, 3,000 aircraft, 1,000 upper-air stations and more than 1,000 ships, whilst the WMO Space Programme coordinates the contributions of a constellation of sixteen operational and fifty research satellites. The WMO Integrated Global Observing Systems operates as a system of systems for all of these individual observational networks, using the WMO Information System to link all regions in data exchange, processing and management.
Looking back over the last six decades, there were several developments that opened up unprecedented scientific and technological possibilities for WMO Members. For example, artificial satellites and the observational opportunities they offered, accompanied by the rapid development of information technology, converged to sustain real-time international exchange of data and products and the implementation of the World Weather Watch, which became the backbone for all WMO programmes.
Major contributions to socioeconomic development evolved from the resulting marked improvement in weather forecasting, which in 1950 only allowed for 24- to 36- hour predictions of a quality comparable to what we today have for seven-day forecasts. This would not have been possible without the international coordinating role played by WMO in observations, research, analysis and modeling.
Moreover, between 1980 and 2005, nearly 7,500 natural disasters worldwide took the lives of over two million people and produced economic losses estimated at over 1.2 trillion US dollars. According to statistics of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), hydrometeorological disasters ranked at the top of the world distribution of disasters by origin over the period 1991-2005, with a share of 76%, whilst biological and geological disasters ranked second and third at 14% and 10%, respectively. At the same time, it should be noted that hydrometeorological factors very often contribute to aggravate the incidence of these last two kinds of disasters. However, despite a rising global trend in the occurrence of disasters and the associated economic losses, the global loss of life associated with meteorological, hydrological and climate-related hazards had decreased by 2005 to one-tenth of levels of the 1950’s, thereby highlighting the key importance of early warning systems and seasonal climate forecasts in managing risks and better preparing vulnerable populations to cope with extreme events.
Indeed, natural hazards pose serious threats
to human security, so WMO has devoted
considerable efforts to developing operational
early warning systems for effective
preparedness measures, which have resulted
in this considerable decrease in the associated
loss of lives. In addition, surface and
groundwater monitoring and quality controls
have enabled WMO to issue authoritative
warnings of dwindling water supplies,
especially in view of mounting population
pressure and water pollution, while WMO
integrated water resources management is
showing the way to optimize the exploitation
of our limited freshwater resources.
Authoritative observations and research have
gradually enabled WMO to take even bolder
initiatives. Through scientific assessments cosponsored
and coordinated by WMO in the
mid 1970’s and early 1980’s, the world community
was alerted to the potential thinning
of the protective stratospheric ozone layer
by CFCs and the incidence of greenhouse
gases on global warming. This awareness
led to the establishment of two international
conventions: the Vienna Convention for the
Protection of the Ozone layer and the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC). Since then, WMO cosponsored
climate change projections have
anticipated the potentially adverse impacts
on societies, ecosystems and our natural resources,
to the point that climate change is
seen today as a major challenge to human
survival, which United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has identified as the
defining challenge of our era.
The climate change trend and the increasing vulnerability of all communities to the impacts of climate variability and climate extremes call for improved access to climate services tailored at the regional, national and global levels, as well as according to the needs of all key socioeconomic sectors. To that end, the World Climate Conference ― 3 agreed in 2009 to the establishment of a Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), to facilitate the provision of enhanced climate information, predictions and services for decision-making.
Today WMO is at the forefront in observing the Earth system and in providing vital weather, climate and water information for the protection of life and property and the safeguarding of our environment. In order for all communities to benefit from this information, WMO daily accentuates its support to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of its developing Members, in particular to those of the Least-Developed Countries (LDCs), to ensure that they will have ready access to advanced hydrometeorological products and the capacity to use them according to their national requirements and their global commitments, thereby contributing to a safer world for themselves, for us and for our future generations.