Dr. Abdulla Ahmed Al Mandous, President of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Director-General of the UAE National Centre of Meteorology (NCM), chaired an Extraordinary Session of the World Meteorological Congress at the WMO headquarters in Geneva, uniting global climate leaders in a mission to accelerate the “Early Warnings for All” (EW4ALL) initiative.
The high-level meeting, attended by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, WMO Regional Association Presidents, and senior UN officials, underscored the urgent global goal of ensuring that every person on the planet is protected by life-saving early-warning systems by 2027.
In his opening address, Dr. Al Mandous described the session as a defining milestone in advancing the global early-warning agenda originally championed by Guterres.
He praised the UN chief’s vision for placing early-warning systems at the top of the global climate agenda, inspiring nations to act collectively with renewed urgency.
“Every dollar invested in early-warning systems yields nine dollars in benefits and countless saved lives,” Dr. Al Mandous said, calling it both “a moral duty and an economic necessity.”
Dr. Al Mandous urged a shift “from ad-hoc cooperation to formal, strategic alignment” across the UN system to effectively deliver on the EW4ALL vision.
He proposed closer institutional engagement with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and strengthened coordination with agencies such as ICAO, ITU, and IMO to ensure unified action on shared priorities like aviation safety, maritime resilience, and communication infrastructure.
Reaffirming WMO’s guiding principle — “One Planet, One System, One Community” — Dr. Al Mandous emphasised that global cooperation in weather, climate, and water information is essential for peace, progress, and planetary security.
In his keynote address, UN Secretary-General António Guterres lauded the WMO as “the quiet force that illuminates all the rational climate decisions we take,” stressing that without the precision and dedication of meteorological services, the world would face far greater losses from natural disasters.
He warned that the climate crisis remains an existential threat demanding “urgent, united global action.”