25/08/2017

'Urgent' Need For Rich World To Help Poor Prepare For Climate Extremes: WMO Head

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

Weather agencies including Australia's must step up co-operation to close a "widening gap in capacity" with developing nations, with the urgency of action increasing as the planet heats up, David Grimes, president of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), says.
The increasing frequency of severe heatwaves, heavy rain events and droughts means it is even more important richer nations such as Australia shared their expertise in forecasting and early warning.
The sun is obscured by smoke from wildfires in the distance behind burnt trees in Williams Lake, British Columbia, last month.  Photo: Darryl Dyck, via AP
"It's becoming more urgent. The reality in the developing world is they lack a lot of tools," said Mr Grimes, ahead of a two-day Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society symposium in Melbourne starting on Tuesday. "You've got countries that can barely keep their monitoring systems functioning."
The potential benefits of early warning have been on show this month as heavy monsoonal rains hit many parts of South Asia, while a deluge near Freetown in Sierra Leone triggered a landslide that killed more than 500 people.
The WMO is hoping to develop a "cascading forecasting system" spanning 12 or more centres to "provide the best information we can to all parts of the world", Mr Grimes said.
Sharing such work would help "to get people out of harm's way or to inform decision making in those countries so they can build up their adaptation and resilience".
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology was one of the three original world centres – along with Moscow and Washington – given the nation's relative strength in southern hemisphere research. It is likely to continue to play a prominent role, he said.
Developing nations have typically contributed little to the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving temperatures higher, and yet are among the most exposed to the effects of severe weather.
A torrent of water flows through a flooded neighbourhood in Regent, east of Freetown, Sierra Leone, earlier this month. Photo: AP
Aside from the humanitarian issues, richer nations have an interest in ensuring fragile states are not pushed to breaking point. "If you think about global security and the stability of human settlements and civil society – it's an important strategic objective of most countries," Mr Grimes said. 2017 is on course to be the second hottest year on record globally, trailing only 2016. Even without the temperature boost that last year had from a big El Nino in the Pacific, last month was the hottest July on record for land temperatures. (See National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chart below.)

Volunteers handle coffins during a mass funeral for victims of heavy flooding and mudslides in Regent at a cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Churches across Sierra Leone held special services in memory of the hundreds killed. Photo: AP
Britain's European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts was recently named by WMO as one of its global centres along with a centre in Montreal, Canada, while France and Germany are among those vying to take on similar roles.
"I expect by next year or so, we'll probably have most of those centres established," Mr Grimes said.The Trump administration's pledge to roll back America's climate research is so far barely having an effect, he said.
That's despite reports in the US that the government was disbanding a federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group that applies climate analysis to public and corporate planning.
"I don't see the evidence [of a pullback] on the weather side," Mr Grimes said. "You can still accomplish quite a lot without getting into the whole conversation about climate change."
A summer heatwave across southern Europe earlier this month sent the mercury into the low 40s. Photo: AP
Understanding how the warming climate will affect different parts of the world requires more research, with the poles and mountain tops among the areas where data is most deficient.
Higher latitude nations, such as Canada, have seen regions warm four to five times the global average.
For Antarctica, with a similar warming rate, the stability of ice sheets particularly on West Antarctica is also "a cause for concern", Mr Grimes said. One threat is the potentially rapid global sea-level rise should the land-based sheets collapse.

Links
at

No comments:

Post a Comment