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WMO Press Conference: United in Science 2024 report - 18 September 2024
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Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
WMO Press Conference: 'United in Science' 2024 report - 18 September 2024
Story: “'United in Science' report - WMO” – 18 September 2024
Speakers:
- Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- Lauren Stuart, scientific coordinator at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
TRT: 02’26”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 18 September 2024 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the press conference room with speakers at the podium.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The science is clear: we are far off track from achieving global climate goals. 2023 was the warmest year on record by a huge margin. Leading international data sets say that the first eight months of 2024 are also the warmest on record.”
- Medium shot of the podium with speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General: “When the Paris Agreement was adopted, greenhouse gas emissions were projected to increase by 16 per cent by 2030 relatively to 2015. Now, that projected increase is three per cent. So, progress has been made, but we need to be much more ambitious. The gap between aspiration and reality is a glaring one.”
- Medium shot of the speakers from the back and press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Lauren Stuart, scientific coordinator at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Satellites are improving our ability to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, which is crucial for informing our efforts to mitigate emissions and to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Another example we highlight is immersive technologies, which are really bridging the digital and the physical worlds. And an example of this is what we call ‘digital twins’, which is basically a digital replication of the earth.”
- Wide lateral shot: journalists at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General: “I do trust in governments. I do trust in multilateralism. I do trust in the Summit of the Future and how this will help us address, use the technology for the better while controlling the negative impacts of technology.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General: “Science should not be kept in a box for a few of us. Science should be the driving mechanism all around the world to really transform and give more opportunities for the generations to come.”
- Various shots of the press conference room with journalists taking notes and cameraperson.
Climate crisis: New technologies offer hope for global action, says UN weather agency
Amid renewed warnings from leading climate scientists that global warming could reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels this century, the head of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) insisted on Wednesday that new technologies and AI offer the opportunity to implement the drastic action needed to resist the existential crisis.
“The science is clear: we are far off track from achieving global climate goals,” said Celeste Saulo, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, she noted that 2023 was the warmest year on record “by a huge margin. Leading international data sets say that the first eight months of 2024 are also the warmest on record.”
Ms. Saulo’s warning coincided with the publication of the latest multi-agency United in Science annual report. Its release comes as huge wildfires rage across Latin America and Portugal, while central European countries battle deadly flooding in the wake of Storm Boris, with Italy now on high alert following mass evacuations in Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Romania.
Despite progress made in mitigating global greenhouse gas emissions, “the emissions gap remains high”, the WMO-partnered report notes. It further warns that if there is no change to current policies, there is a 66 per cent probability that global warming will reach 3°C this century.
Despite the troubling clarity of science, the report offers grounds for hope. “When the Paris Agreement was adopted, greenhouse gas emissions were projected to increase by 16 per cent by 2030, relatively to 2015,” explained the WMO chief. “Now, that projected increase is three per cent. So, progress has been made, but we need to be much more ambitious. The gap between aspiration and reality is a glaring one.”
New technologies and innovation are potential game-changers
In a call for global and urgent action coinciding with the upcoming Summit of the Future at UN headquarters in New York on 22-23 September, the UN weather agency underscored the untapped potential of natural and social sciences, new technology and innovation to help countries develop, reduce their vulnerability to disaster and adapt to climate change.
Space-based Earth observations are part of the solutions highlighted in the report, as they are crucial for effective weather forecasting, climate prediction and environmental monitoring. “Satellites are improving our ability to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, which is crucial for informing our efforts to mitigate emissions and to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement,” explained Lauren Stuart, scientific coordinator at WMO.
Another example is “immersive technologies, which are bridging the digital and the physical worlds. And an example of this is what we call ‘digital twins’, which is basically a digital replication of the Earth.” Digital twins create a virtual real-world system to simulate how reality would respond in any given situation. The metaverse gather virtual worlds into an “integrative system” that provides immersive experiences from simulating flood and drought events to predicting water flow and impacts on land. These technologies enable experts to take decisions towards achieving the universally agreed Sustainable Development Goals.
Ms. Saulo insisted that technology alone will not be enough to solve climate change and disaster risk reduction as she urged all countries to share their expertise and experiences at the Summit of the Future. “I do trust in governments. I do trust in multilateralism. I do trust in the Summit of the Future and how this will help us address, use the technology for the better while controlling the negative impacts of technology,” she emphasized.
The UN weather agency chief underscored the need for a “transdisciplinary approach”, where a diversity of actors including scientists, policymakers, indigenous communities and civil society groups create solutions together. “Science should not be kept in a box for a few of us. Science should be the driving mechanism all around the world to really transform and give more opportunities for the generations to come.”
Ends.
Teleprompter
Good morning everybody.
Thank you for joining us today.
The World Meteorological Organisation is releasing a multi agency report called United in Science.
It's a report that we release every year with many different partners ahead of the **** level session of the UN General Assembly.
And as its title would suggest, it does.
You know, we are united in our science, hence this this report.
Just a couple of housekeeping issues.
The embargo has been lifted on this report 30 minutes ago, so you're free to report on it.
We sent you out the press release.
It's available in all languages.
There are in addition, digital assets if you should, if you should need them.
So without any further ado, I will pass the floor to the World Meteorological Organisation Secretary General, Professor Celeste Salo, who will have a a few words for you.
And then for the more detailed presentation of the report, I'll hand over to Lauren Stewart, who works in the WMO Science and Innovation division.
And she's the coordinator of this this report, which, as I said, has many, many partners.
So WMO coordinates it.
But you know, we, we do thank our many partners for for its contributions.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Claire.
Thank you colleagues, for being here.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
It's my pleasure to be here today for the release of this report.
United in Science 2024 is a compilation of the latest weather, climate, water and related environmental and social sciences.
WMO publishes this report every year for the UN General Assembly **** Level Session.
It is compiled by a consortium of UN agencies, meteorological organisations and scientific and research bodies, and embraces input from young people and early career scientists who are agents of change for the future.
This year, United in Science has a special focus on the Summit of the Future, which provides a once in a generation opportunity to get back on track to achieve global goals and a better world for all.
Summit of the Future decisions represent the choice between breakthrough or breakdown the science.
As usual, the report contains a section on climate science and the science is clear.
We are far off track from achieving global climate goals.
2023 was the warmest year on record by a huge margin.
Leading international data sets say that the first eight months of 2024 are also the warmest on record.
There is an 80% chance that the global mean near surface temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5° above pre industrial levels at least one of the next 5 calendar years.
When the Paris Agreement was adopted, greenhouse gases emissions were projected to increase by 16% by 2030 relatively to 2015.
Now that projected increase is 3%.
So progress has been made, but we need to be much more ambitious.
The gap between aspirations and reality is a glaring 1.
Under current policies, there is a 2/3 likelihood of global warming of three degrees this century.
Even at existing levels of warming, we are seeing increasingly destructive weather patterns as witnessed by extreme heat and flooding we have seen in recent months.
The climate crisis is worsening the inequality crisis.
Once again, we are sounding the red alert for the planet.
But there is hope.
We have to have hope for the sake of future generations.
The report highlights how advances in natural and social sciences, new technologies and innovation enhance our understanding of the Earth system.
They could be game changers for climate change adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and sustainable development.
We need transdisciplinary approaches which unite diverse actors such as scientists, policy makers, practitioners, and civil society, including local and indigenous communities.
We need to embrace the tremendous accumulated wisdom of traditional knowledge and leverage the power of innovation.
We need to break down silence and think out-of-the-box.
We need to rethink and reboot our actions.
I thank you very much.
Thank you, Professor Saolo.
I'll now hand the floor to Lauren Stewart and then at the end of that, we will take questions.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
As Celeste mentioned, the report this year is aligned with the themes of the summit of the Future.
And the goal of the report is really to highlight how incredible advances and weather, climate, water and related environmental and social sciences can help us achieve global goals.
So for example, the report highlights how artificial intelligence and machine learning are completely revolutionising how we forecast the weather, which is really, really exciting.
It offers a lot of potential possibilities to make weather modelling cheaper, faster and ultimately more accessible to developing countries who might not have the resources, the capacity or the computational abilities right now to use what are now considered traditional numerical weather prediction models.
Another example that is highlighted in the reports is the incredible advances in space based Earth observations and this has really opened new frontiers in weather, climate, water and environmental applications.
For example, satellite technologies are improving our ability to forecast extreme weather events, particularly in regions where that has been quite challenging, for example in regions that are maybe mountainous with difficult terrain and also in places that lack the ground based observations that are essential for forecasting.
Satellites are able to now complement that.
Another example is how satellites are improving our ability to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, which is crucial for informing our efforts to mitigate emissions and to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreements.
Another example we highlight is immersive technologies, which are really bridging the digital and the physical worlds.
And an example of this is what we call digital twins, which is basically a digital replication of the Earth.
And we're seeing this being implemented in really innovative ways, for example, to replicate how floods and droughts might impact communities.
And this therefore improves our decision making and can enhance land and water management to support global goals.
And the report highlights a lot of really exciting examples like this and AI immersive technologies and space based observations.
But I think one of the most important messages that we try to get across is that we can't achieve the global goals with science and technology alone.
And the report highlights that we should be embracing transdisciplinary approaches in order to Co create solutions.
Now, transdisciplinarity is, I think, a new concept for a lot of people.
And frankly, it was quite new for WMO to be focusing on this in one of our reports.
But it's really important.
And basically what it is, is it is a method that brings together a lot of diverse actors from different disciplines and encourages them to work together to Co create solutions.
And this is much easier said than done, I think in many cases.
It requires, I think really thinking outside of the box and being open and, and brave enough to really embrace completely new and different perspectives and experiences and knowledge in order to find solutions to these challenges.
But if we're able to embrace these approaches and and use them appropriately, they offer a lot of opportunities to enhance weather, water, climate and environmental sciences and services.
For example, by increasing trust in institutions such as the National Hydrological and Meteorological Services.
It can also increase resilience of local communities by engaging them in these processes from the beginning.
So as I said, the the report highlights a lot of these examples on how we can achieve the global goals.
But we we conclude with a chapter on the UN Early Warnings for All initiative.
And we did this kind of strategically because we feel that this initiative is a really good example of how we can bring together all of these topics in the report and actually put them into action to save lives through early warning systems.
For example, advances in artificial intelligence are improving our ability to process really large amounts of information and data and satellite imagery, and this can help improve our ability to effectively communicate risk.
And virtual reality is being used to simulate what a flood might look like, for example.
And this can support anticipatory action and help communities be better informed for how to actually respond to the early warnings when they're received.
And transdisciplinary approaches are also crucial because this can help ensure that local communities are engaged from the beginning and that early warnings are really tailored to their local contacts so that they can be applied in an effective way.
And so by harnessing these advancements in natural and social sciences and technology, we can really scale up our efforts to achieve the early warnings for all and deliver these life saving early warnings to communities across the world.
And so while the report highlights all of these amazing opportunities, it also addresses some of the gaps and challenges that we face that potentially limits the potential of these advances.
So for example, data is a huge challenge.
Still, data quality, data access, data availability is a significant barrier to actually achieve many of these scientific and technological breakthroughs in practise.
Additionally, governance challenges and limited resources and inadequate capacity to actually utilise the science and technology is a significant challenge as well, and as a result, these gaps and challenges risk further exacerbating the global digital divide if we're not able to address them effectively.
But in summary, as we look to the future, collaboration will be absolutely essential to address these challenges.
And the report does have a few recommendations for how we can address them moving forward, including enhancing data, data quality, availability and use, as well as boosting investments and also access to emerging science and technology.
And finally, we should also scale up education, training and capacity development, particularly in lower income countries.
And also, I think particularly in the area of transdisciplinary approaches because like I said earlier, we cannot address these global challenges with one discipline alone.
But ultimately, the key message of the report is that we're delivering some good news.
We we do have the tools, we have the science, technology and approaches to achieve the global goals.
But in order to do so, we need to work together to address these gaps and challenges and make sure that the benefits of the science and technology is accessible to all to ensure that we have a better future for everyone.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
With that we will go to questions.
So if there's any questions in the room, raise your hand.
If not, I'll go to the.
[Other language spoken]
So Nina, last, if you could just introduce yourself.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I was wondering on the issue of artificial intelligence.
There's also been warnings about how.
[Other language spoken]
Enormous amounts of energy.
So it has, you know, the negative effects.
If you could talk a little bit about balancing that out and also a little bit more about, you know, is do you think that artificial intelligence and and machine learning could truly be like a game changer in this in the sense or yeah, sort of if you could say a little bit more about that and then about the upcoming COP.
[Other language spoken]
Any.
Thoughts about the the financing deal and how likely you think that is to succeed?
[Other language spoken]
So I will address your question on AI, which is a great question.
And, and you're right, you know, AI does offer incredible possibilities and, and opportunities moving forward, but we also have a lot to learn still about it in order to apply it in ways that are ethical and appropriate.
[Other language spoken]
And this field is moving so fast.
Sometimes it's, it's hard to keep up just with all of the advancements that we're seeing.
But in terms of, you know, just the amount of, of energy that it takes and also the computational power it, it really is significant.
And although it can make weather forecasting more accessible by reducing some of those burdens, there is still a burden as far as energy and computational resources.
And so it's not a perfect solution by any means, but I think it does hold a lot of potential.
And with so much research being done in this field, I do think it can be a game changer in the way that we we do forecast the weather moving forward.
And I'm making that more accessible.
Thank you very much for your question.
I will address the one facing COP.
Certainly, of course we are all concerned about how we get enough funding for for the just transition and, and in particular as the report highlights how we can really deliver on better early warning systems, for example.
So we do have expectations and that this report also helps to highlight the importance of funding.
So it's the report is also providing another perspective from the scientific point of view, why we need that funding and and how that funding would really help develop these tools.
So yes, we are we are going to couple with lots of expectations as usual.
We know that countries will debate a lot, but we need to provide concrete ways forward.
And this is about this report is about concrete ways forward.
So where you put the money, you get something concrete for the benefit of the countries and I would like to highlight that.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Next question is from the platform Bianca Gautier of Global TV of Brazil.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning, everyone.
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, the the report mentions that in the first semester in Brazil, the state of Hugo Grand to do so experienced the most severe floods ever recorded.
And now in Brazil there are many areas that are being ravaged by fire.
So we can see smoke over the skies even in like above big cities including Sao Paulo.
How likely is that the extent of this fire in Brazil is also a consequence of climate change?
In which extent can the climate change crisis be also responsible for this extreme event?
How concerned are you with the disasters we have seen recently in Brazil?
And finally, what message would you like to send to the Brazilian authorities, Brazilian government, but also to Brazilian citizens in the sense of becoming more aware of the problem?
[Other language spoken]
I'm happy to to address that.
So, yeah, we, we've seen, you know, the devastating impacts of these floods in Brazil and now the fires in, in recent days.
And, you know, I, I don't think there has been any attribution studies on the fires recently because it is so recent now.
But, you know, IPCC is telling us that, you know, climate change is increasing the likelihood of some of these extreme events.
And so we can't rule out that these fires may also be, you know, connected to climate change in some ways.
But we'll have to wait and see what those studies tell us once they come out.
As far as what to, you know, what message we want to to send to people regarding this, I think the message is really clear.
The science tells us that we need to take urgent and ambitious mitigation and adaptation action.
And we need to do this across scales, you know, from governments to the private sector, to individuals as well.
We all have an important role to play in in reducing our emissions and also increasing resilience and local communities.
And so that's that's the message I think I would like to send to them.
But I don't know if let's say you want to add anything or.
Yes, maybe just to compliment and certainly it's quite worrying to to see so many extreme events all over the world.
I would say you highlighted Brazil.
Certainly the flooding at the beginning of the year was extremely critical.
And now we have these fires, although we don't have it still the attribution studies that Laureen mentioned.
And these are quite, I would say, critical to make sure that the climate change is driving these fires.
We do know that land use has been extremely, extremely modified due to economic activities.
We all know that and the how Pantanal suffered from these in in Brazil.
It's a, it's AI think, a demonstration of what is happening all over the Gran Chaco area.
That is not only Brazil, but Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina where I come from.
So the land use change has substantially affected also the what is happening with fires.
So yes, IPCC has highlighted that we will have more and more extreme events.
So we are just witnessing what science the scientific community already mentioned that was going to happen.
And my message would be, as highlighted by Loreen, we have to stand together, we have to work and find out solutions that allow just transitions that allow us to protect the planet, to have sustainable development.
And it's it's a movement across nations, across communities and across, of course, the UN system.
And we will engage as much as possible to provide all the resources for a informed decision making.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
One more from the platform Maya plants the UN brief Yes, thank you very much for taking my question, Claire.
My question is for Mr Mrs Solo.
Google said it would work its plans to build a 200 million data centre in Santiago, Chile, because opposition from locals and environmentalists the.
The tech giant has increased its water consumption by 22% between 20 and 22, according to the Financial Times.
And critics have described the Google's plans to build data centres in Latin America as data colonialism that exploits countries cheap water, electricity and LAX environmental standards, according to a conservation news outlet called Monga Bay.
So what do you make of this push for AI to do so much promises that will help with the climate crisis and at the in time they are actually causing more environmental damage to this technologies?
Thank you very much, Maya, for your question.
Certainly, as we mentioned before, it is not about, I don't know, not allowing artificial intelligence to grow, but just to having controls in place.
Governance, this has been highlighted.
It's also highlighted in this report governance and this will be addressed during the summit of the future.
It's about how we really balance development, sustainable development with all the innovations and, and and tools that science brings to the table.
So I do believe that and I would say that it's important how countries can put controls in place so that these developments are for the benefit of the global community and not just to grow at the expense of the quality of the environment.
So I, I do trust in governments, I do trust in multilateralism, I do trust in the summit of the future and how this will help us address, use the technology for the better while controlling the negative impacts of technology.
We have been, we are here because of the development of technology of carbon fuel.
It was, it was seen as an opportunity and now we see the negative impacts.
We have now the advantage of understanding the negative impacts.
So we have to develop technologies in a way that we really avoid the negative impacts in time not to damage the planet and the global population.
We'll go back to in the room now with Jamie Keaton, Associated Press.
Hi, thank you for coming to see us.
Secretary General.
I wanted to just, you've mentioned on a number of occasions the summer of the future.
What specifically are you going to be asking countries at the summit of the future and what do you hope to achieve in terms of better results in terms of the fighting against climate change?
And if I could just throw in on top of that, because it's obviously a contextual question, we've also seen a lot of elections around the world in the recent months come in other others coming up in the next few months.
We've seen a lot of conflict in the Middle East and Europe and elsewhere, Africa.
How much are those things taking away from attention, global attention on the fight against climate change?
Thank you for your question.
Certainly it's a complex 1.
It's very hard to address from, I could say individual perspective from any organisation.
And again, I would go out, go back to the issue of collaboration and mutual interaction.
I We all know that huge amounts of money are going into the conflict situation that we we are experiencing globally and that of course removes the money from the climate action.
We see this as an as of course as a risk.
We see it with concern.
I think that most, most of the population around the world sees this as a concern, not only because we have global conflicts that are really damaging people, but because also we are not using our resources to help others to, to improve their life quality and opportunity.
So certainly it's a goal, it's a world with many conflicts and looking into the summit of the future, I believe that I truly believe it's a opportunity for countries to address the, I would say the inequality crisis, the climate crisis, the environmental crisis and try to reach together some strong agreements in terms of how we are going to speed up our really achieve our capability to achieve sustainable development goals.
What WMO expects from the summit of the future.
Of course, enhancing the role of science in decision making for us is critical, enhancing data, data production, data sharing all across the world because we have highlighted that the data we have is not enough to understand what is happening to our planet and to the environment and to the ecosystems.
[Other language spoken]
We need to share that data and that is a strong message from the WMO and of course is a strong message from all the to empower the national meteorological and hydrological services that are doing their best to continue with the observing system, to reinforce the observing system, to bring objective information for decision making.
This is not about opinions, it's about reality.
It's about how science can help a decision making and we need to use science for that purpose.
Science should not be kept in a box for a few of of of us.
Science should be the driving mechanism all around the world to really transform and give more opportunities for the generations to come.
[Other language spoken]
Are there any more questions on the platform or in the room with that?
Thank you very much indeed for for joining us.
Thank you very much indeed to UNTV for for hosting this making it possible.
We will have a series of reports coming up ahead of COP and the state of the Global Water Resources report is the next one, followed by several more.
So please, please stay tuned and you will see us in the coming weeks more often in this room.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much indeed.