Are countries really committed to climate action?
New York - Momentum is gathering to achieve a plan to ensure that every person on Earth is protected by an early warning weather system in the next five years.
Ministers at the UN assembly this week committed to support the UN Early Warnings for All initiat as an urgent climate measure.
Organisations such as the UN keep talking about action – there has been little so far other than talk of action.
UN secretary-general António Guterres told the general assembly this week it is high time to move beyond endless discussions. Vulnerable countries need meaningful action.
Guterres has asked the World Meteorological Association to do a roadmap for the UN climate change conference, COP27, in Egypt in November – again another talkfest. They say COP27 will move the focus from promises and pledges to action on the ground. Will it happen?
An estimated 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in places highly vulnerable to climate change. Over the past 50 years to 2019, a weather, climate or water-related disaster claimed the life of 115 people per day. The number of recorded disasters increased by a factor of five, driven in part by human-induced climate change and more extreme weather.
Early warning systems are a proven, effective, and feasible climate adaptation measure, that save lives and money. We can and must reach the most vulnerable and ensure that they are translated into early action.
A range of new and pre-existing innovative financing solutions are required to implement the plan to protect every person on earth. these include a scaling up of the climate risk early warning systems (crews) initiative, the systematic observations financing facility (soff), and accelerated investment programmes of climate funds, such as the green climate fund (gcf) and the adaptation fund.
Crews already supports 75 countries and has received nearly $US80 million in contributions since it was launched in 2015, spearheaded by France.
A multi-hazard early warning system is an integrated system which allows people to know that hazardous weather or climate events such as floods, storms and heatwaves are on their way so people can minimise impacts.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.