World Meteorological Organization： Global climate disasters have caused losses of $3.6 trillion in the past 50 years.

　　Climate change will pose a persistent and increasingly serious threat to human life, ecosystem, economy and social development in the next few centuries. Recovery after the epidemic is an opportunity to help push the world along a more sustainable path.

　　Yang Haiquan, a reporter from Geneva Electric, reported that October 13th is the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. On the same day, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the 2020 Climate Service Status Report with the theme of "From Early Warning to Early Action". The report pointed out that in the past 50 years, there have been more than 11,000 disasters caused by weather, climate and water around the world, resulting in 2 million deaths and 3.6 trillion US dollars in economic losses. Although the average death toll of each disaster decreased by one third, the number of recorded disasters increased by five times and the economic losses increased by seven times.

　　The report said that due to climate change, the frequency, intensity and severity of extreme weather and climate events have increased. The data shows that one third of the world’s population is still not fully covered by the climate warning system. In 2018, about 108 million people around the world needed international humanitarian assistance due to disasters such as storms, floods, droughts and wildfires. It is estimated that this number will increase by nearly 50% by 2030, and the annual cost will be about 20 billion US dollars. The report emphasizes that it is necessary for climate forecasting to shift from forecasting weather conditions to early warning of weather evolution conditions, including paying attention to forecasting weather impacts, so that people and enterprises can take early actions according to early warning.

　　The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petiri Talas, said that an early warning system is a prerequisite for effectively reducing disaster risks and adapting to climate change. Being prepared and responding at the right time and place can save many lives and protect the livelihood of community members around the world. Petiri Talas emphasized that although the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a large-scale international health crisis and economic crisis, and it will take several years for the world to recover, there is still a key point to keep in mind, that is, climate change will pose a persistent and increasingly serious threat to human life, ecosystem, economy and social development in the next few centuries. Post-epidemic recovery is an opportunity to push the world along a more sustainable path and enhance climate resilience and adaptability.

　　The report emphasizes that global climate services should strengthen the protection of the most vulnerable groups, including providing assistance to the least developed countries and small island developing States through mechanisms such as climate risk and early warning systems. Although nearly 90% of the least developed countries and small island developing States have identified the early warning system as the top priority of national independent contribution to climate change, many of them lack the necessary financial investment capacity. Since 1970, small island developing States have lost $153 billion due to weather, climate and water-related disasters. In the least developed countries, 1.4 million people (70% of all deaths) have lost their lives in weather, climate and water-related disasters.

　　According to the report, data provided by 138 members or regions of the World Meteorological Organization show that only 40% members have multi-disaster early warning systems. At present, only 75 members or regions (accounting for 39%) have the ability to provide weather impact-based forecasting services. In many developing countries, the communication ability of early warning system is very weak. At present, there is not enough global capacity to turn early warning into early action, especially in the least developed countries, where Africa faces the biggest gap. Although the African continent has a good ability in risk knowledge and prediction, in terms of available data, the early warning system only covers 44,000 out of an average of 100,000 people. Weather and climate services depend on data from systematic observation, but the observation network in Africa is insufficient. In 2019, only 26% of observation stations in Africa met the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization.

　　The report calls for the increase of climate-related disasters to show that it is necessary to increase investment in climate change adaptation in an all-round way, including improving the acquisition of risk information and strengthening the construction of multi-disaster early warning systems through investment, so as to reduce disasters related to weather, water and climate. It is gratifying that global climate financing has reached a record level, and it broke through the $500 billion mark for the first time from 2017 to 2018. Of course, this amount is still far from the funds needed to take climate action. It is estimated that from 2020 to 2030, global climate action will need $180 billion annually.

　　In order to promote the implementation of the global early warning system and improve its effectiveness, the report puts forward six strategic suggestions. First, fill the gap in early warning system in African least developed countries and small island developing States; The second is to focus on transforming early warning information into early action; The third is to provide sustainable funds for the global observation system supporting early warning; The fourth is to track the flow of funds to ensure that the relevant resources are allocated to the places related to the implementation of early warning systems, and to understand what impact it will have; Fifth, strengthen the consistency of monitoring and evaluation to better determine the effectiveness of the early warning system; The sixth is to fill the data gap of small island developing States.