As part of an ambitious effort to improve early warnings and response, the World Meteorological Organization is stepping up its efforts to safeguard people from climate and health-related dangers, particularly severe heat, a press release from WMO writes.
A new implementation strategy for enhancing integrated climate and health science and services over the following 10 years has received the approval of the WMO Executive Council. Managing the effects of temperature, weather, air pollution, UV radiation, extreme events, and other environmental factors on health is encouraged by this.
Through a joint Climate and Health Office and an increasing number of technical collaborations, WMO and the World Health Organization have created the ClimaHealth portal, a one-stop resource for information on climate and health.
Given the rise in extreme weather events and the effects of climate change, this collaborative leadership is essential to safeguarding people’s health.
Extreme heat and the need to improve “knowledge, early warning, and risk management of the climate-associated cascading threats of extreme heat, wildfire, and air quality related health problems” were given particular focus by the Executive Council.
Heat waves are thought to be silent emergencies. Millions of people are at risk from one of the world’s deadliest extreme weather occurrences. According to Ian Lisk, President of the WMO Services Commission, which is leading WMO action, heatwaves are more frequent, more intense, and beginning earlier and ending later than in the past.
Early warning and response systems and methods are included in heat action plans for both the general public and vulnerable groups like the elderly, he said, in both urban and rural settings.
They have been effectively implemented by both rich and developing nations in various parts of the world. India and Pakistan, for example, have significantly decreased death rates.
The newly adopted resolution by the Executive Council emphasizes that the new UN Early Warnings for Everyone Initiative’s focus areas include excessive heat. In order to develop a roadmap for improved extreme heat risk management, it calls for greater coordination of WMO’s operations, including those related to air quality, climate services, drought management, urban meteorology, and research.
