Early warning system for entire planet launched at Cop27

A global early warning system for increasingly extreme and dangerous weather has been launched at Cop27.

The new Early Warnings for All initiative will reach everyone on earth and will cost around $3billion over the next five years, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the UN body spearheading the program.

“Ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions are supercharging extreme weather events across the planet. These increasing calamities cost lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in loss and damage. Three times more people are displaced by climate disasters than war. Half of humanity is already in the danger zone,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.

“We must invest equally in adaptation and resilience. That includes the information that allows us to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts. To that end, I have called for every person on Earth to be protected by early warning systems within five years, with the priority to support the most vulnerable first.”