By Biswendu Bhattacharjee
Baku, Nov 13 (UNI) United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, while addressing global leaders in COP29 on Wednesday, urged nations to work on delivering early warnings and managing extreme heat.
He said 2024 is on track to be the hottest year in the history books, with extreme heat scorching countries and communities with the temperatures pushing the limits of human endurance.
“Not only heat, around the world, we’ve seen record rains and hurricanes, historic fires, and deadly droughts. In this era of climate catastrophe, early warning systems needed for protection from extreme heat are not luxuries. They are necessities and sound investments,” Guterres observed.
Early warning systems provide an almost ten-fold return; standard occupational safety measures responding to extreme heat could save over US$360 billion a year. The United Nations is working to ensure no one is denied these basic protections, he stated adding, “In July we launched a Call to Action on extreme heat”.
He called for international cooperation in four critical areas - care for the vulnerable; protection of workers; using science and data to boost resilience; and limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius – to stop the problem getting unimaginably worse.
“Now, we are developing a package of solutions on extreme heat to support countries to act. I ask them to do so urgently, before the next heat wave strikes. The early warnings for all initiatives is working to ensure every person on earth is covered by multi-hazard early warning systems by 2027. But still, almost half the world’s countries are not covered by multi-hazard early warning systems,” Guterres mentioned.
On an average, least developed countries and Small Island Developing States have less than ten percent of the data they need for effective alert systems, but it requires high-level political support for the initiative within countries; increased collaboration; a boost in technology support; and a major effort to scale-up finance for early warning systems – particularly for the most vulnerable, he said.
Small Island Developing States, and least developed countries are struggling to secure the funds they need. "It needs providers of bilateral and multilateral funds to redouble their efforts, to help cover investment gaps. And, there is a need to encourage private finance, particularly through public-private partnerships," Guterres added.
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