SECRETARY-GENERAL ADDRESSES WORLD METEOROLOGICAL CONGRESS
Press Release
SG/SM/6991
SAG/34
SECRETARY-GENERAL ADDRESSES WORLD METEOROLOGICAL CONGRESS
19990514 GENEVA, 14 May (UN Information Service) -- Following is the statement by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the World Meteorological Congress, delivered today at the Geneva International Conference Centre:It is an honour to address you today. As I said when your new building was inaugurated, it reminds us that the issues facing our planet not only challenge us; they also unite us. That vessel-shaped structure reminds us that we who inhabit this planet are all in the same boat.
No organization has understood that better than the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Throughout your history, you have promoted a better understanding of weather, water and climate; you have helped others understand that these phenomena know no national boundaries -- that they vitally affect the health and well-being of all life on this earth.
By the same token, the WMO has helped us understand that there are no distinct boundaries between scientific disciplines such as atmospheric science, hydrology, oceanography, biological and agricultural sciences.
Nor are the scientific challenges isolated from one another. Whether it be the expected harmful consequences of a climatic change induced by greenhouse gases, or the depletion of the ozone in the upper atmosphere, these issues are, by their very nature, interdisciplinary and must be tackled by interdisciplinary means.
The WMO recognized this at an early stage. Instead of focusing on expanding its own activities, WMO realized it was more effective to establish joint projects and programmes with other United Nations agencies and with the global scientific community.
The WMO thus devoted more time to harnessing the resources of potential partners than to pursuing turf battles against them. And in that way, it also became a model of inter-agency cooperation -- as well as a pioneer of partnerships with civil society, in the form of the academic world.
That collaborative spirit gave birth to many landmark initiatives: for instance, the inter-agency collaboration with regard to water; the joint WMO/ICSU Global Atmospheric Research Programme, later known to many as "the world according to GARP", which led to unprecedented advances in weather prediction on various time scales; the WMO/UNEP/ICSU World Climate Programme which -- with the active participation of many other organizations, both governmental and non-governmental explored ways of predicting changes of climate, whether natural or man-made.
You could even call the WMO the original networker. One of my senior advisers remembers fondly the three months he spent as a young academic back in 1971, digging through the files of the WMO to see how it was setting up the World Weather Watch. The challenge was how to respond to the perceived interdependence in the world without creating a huge international infrastructure. And the answer was: by linking up national activities and making the network the response. Today, almost 30 years later, all of us in the United Nations system are talking about network solutions and looking for ways to find them.
There is no doubt that the role of the WMO will be even more important in the future. Take, for instance, the growing debate about possible global climate change: despite very real concerns, not nearly enough is being done to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The atmospheric concentration of these gases continues to increase at an alarming rate. It is true that we do not yet know for sure what the consequences might be. But we cannot exclude that they may be harmful to many human activities. It may, for example, have a serious negative effect on food production -- at the same time, as a rapidly growing world population.
Or take the increasing water shortage in many parts of the world. With some 70 per cent of drylands used for agriculture around the world already degraded, the rate of desertification threatens to rise further.
At the same time, we can expect climate change to affect small island developing States ever more severely. More intense and more frequent tropical storms pose a threat to the very survival of coastal infrastructures, defence systems, habitats and human settlements. In the longer term, the gradual rise of sea level could have a similar impact and some islands could disappear altogether.
The increase in natural disasters is a source of grave concern to all in the international community and a main focus of the work of the United Nations. Nearly three quarters of all natural disasters -- whether floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, forest fires and epidemics -- are weather and climate-related.
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The immense progress in weather prediction has enabled the WMO to provide vital information for advance warnings that save lives and reduce damage to property and the environment. Every cent invested in the Meteorological and Hydrological Services yields an economic return of more than 10 times the initial outlay.
There is no doubt that the issues before the WMO will require ever- greater vigilance and creativity in the decades to come. We look with confidence to the organization and its partners to develop concrete and realistic plans.
Knowing WMO's proven ability to forge close partnerships with other organizations both within and outside the United Nations system, I know I can rely on you to take the initiative in participating, identifying and addressing the many new challenges that are bound to confront us in the next century. And so, as you meet in your beautiful vessel in days and years to come, may you continue to ensure a safe passage for the rest of us, no matter how stormy the conditions out there.
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