World Meteorological Day 2022

Systematic Observations for Better Early Action On March 23 we mark the 72th recurrence of World Met Day. The climate has dramatically changed over the last 70 years as shown by the latest IPCC report. With its dire warning about the impacts of climate change on people and the planet, the report was called “a […]

UN Unveils New Finance Mechanism to Boost Climate Action

3 November 2021: On Finance Day at COP26, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the creation of the Systematic Observations Finance Facility (SOFF).
This new finance mechanism will set the foundation to boost climate action globally and will contribute to achieving one of the main goals of COP26 – to urgently scale-up climate finance to support developing countries’ adaptation and mitigation efforts.

COP26: how plugging data gaps will transform our response to climate change

Just a week before the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, three of the United Nations’ leading agencies on climate and development released alarming reports.
The World Meteorological Organization has highlighted how greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2020. It found that concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere rose at a faster rate in 2020 than over the previous decade.

Global observing system needs sustainable investments

More than 100 participants representing 28 potential funders and 21 observer institutions attended the second funders’ forum of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) on the 28th of June to advance discussions on on the timeline and costs and benefits.

he forum built on the discussions of the first funders’ forum, and addressed key issues that delegations raised during the first forum and in subsequent consultations. It focused on clarifying the critical role of observations in the meteorological value chain and the SOFF value proposition; the proposed institutional and operational arrangements; and the roadmap to COP26 and beyond.

New observing system financing initiative wins support

A major new proposed financing initiative to close the increasing gaps in the global observing system, which underpins all weather forecasts and early warnings, has received overwhelming support from the international community.

The Systematic Observations Financing Facility, or SOFF, seeks to provide technical and financial assistance to countries to generate and exchange basic observational data. This is critical for improved weather forecasts and climate services needed to boost resilience to more extreme weather and to adapt to climate change impacts.

The Systematic Observations Financing Facility: Filling the data gaps for effective adaptation investments

The climate crisis threatens to push 130 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 while the world is confronted with the COVID-19 crisis. To reach adaptation action at scale, it will need to be at the heart of the COVID-19 recovery.

Among the several challenges and urgent needs highlighted in the Summit, early warnings and climate information were deemed as a priority.

SOFF will support the most vulnerable countries to fill the observations data gaps and to maintain the observing systems in the long term. By doing so, SOFF will ensure the benefits of investments in observational capacity are sustained over time

Support grows for Systematic Observations Financing Facility

Three major European meteorological institutions have joined the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to announce their support for the creation of a new Systematic Observations Financing Facility.

The heads of WMO, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EUMETNET (a grouping of 31 European National Meteorological Services), and the satellite agency EUMETSAT signed a joint statement urging European governments and institutions and all multilateral climate and environment financing institutions to consider funding the new initiative.