Nearly half of all countries lack early-warning systems for extreme weather events, leaving millions – especially those in developing nations – vulnerable.
As it released a new report on Monday, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called for gaps in global monitoring and forecasting networks to be plugged. Timely alerts are crucial to saving lives as extreme weather events multiply due to climate change, it warned.
“Many millions of people lack protection against dangerous weather, which is inflicting an increasing toll on economic assets and vital infrastructure,” said a statement by the WMO, noting that disaster-related deaths are six times higher in countries without early-warning systems.
The organisation said weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in the past 50 years. It added that 90 percent of those deaths occurred in developing countries.
“Impacts are spiralling as weather becomes more extreme,” it said.
‘Worst in conflict-affected contexts’
The WMO acknowledged that there has been “huge progress” in climate monitoring over the last decade. The number of countries using some form of multi-hazard early warning systems has jumped from 52 to at least 108.
However, it continued, an assessment of 62 countries showed half of them possess only basic capacity and 16 percent have less than basic capacity.
“The situation is worst in fragile, conflict and violence-affected contexts,” the organisation said.
Nevertheless, the WMO is seeing progress in Africa, with more countries having functioning websites and issuing standardised alerts.
“Early warning means early action. Our goal is to not only warn the world; it is to empower it,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a speech as the UN institution opened its annual conference in Geneva on Monday.
The world has been rocked by numerous weather-related disasters in 2025. Huge flooding has rocked countries including Pakistan, Nigeria and South Korea. Wildfires have devastated large areas in southern Europe, as well as the US.
The head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Home Affairs, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, told delegates at the conference that no country or region was spared from the effects of climate change and extreme weather.
She pointed to the example of how the regular monitoring of a mountain glacier allowed scientists to warn about its imminent collapse in May 2025, allowing for the evacuation of the Swiss village of Blatten.
“Permafrost melt will inevitably lead to more glacier collapses and rockfalls,” making early warning systems vital, she said.
The post UN pushes for worldwide disaster alerts as extreme weather ‘spirals’ appeared first on Al Jazeera.
