Global cooperation needed to improve Pacific weather services

Transcript

The World Meteorological Organisation says global cooperation is essential to improve weather services for small island developing states.

In the Pacific, extreme climate conditions account for 76 percent of all disasters, with 50 percent directly related to cyclones.

Ahead of the Small Islands Developing States conference in Samoa next month a campaign called 'The Small Islands, Weather Together' has been launched to show how they can work together to improve their weather and climate services.  

The campaign has the support of the WMO and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

The WMO's Secretary-General, Michel Jarraud, speaking from Geneva, told Don Wiseman, there must be more investment, more emphasis on quality forecasts and warnings, and better communication.

MICHEL JARRAUD: One of the challenges is to make sure that there is adequate cooperation across all the countries, and this is what WMO is organising on the global scale. To make sure that every country does contribute to the global observation system, but at the same time that all the countries benefit from this cooperation. The weather which takes place for example in Samoa, since the conference will take place in Samoa, in seven days from today is influenced by weather conditions almost everywhere on the planet. So global cooperation is absolutely essential. And we have to make sure that the observation systems are strengthened in all these places but also that all the countries, the small islands, can benefit - they can get the observation from other countries, they can get predictions, they can get warnings, they can get advice from other countries.

DON WISEMAN: Do you envisage that every country should have a met office or can you rely on this larger group of nations?

MJ: Actually, we need both. Every country, member of WMO, has a national met service. But of course the size of the met service let's say in the Cook Islands is much smaller than China or the USA. We are encouraging regional or sub-regional cooperation. For example for the Pacific when it comes to tropical cyclones, Fiji is acting as a regional centre, providing advisories to other countries in the sub-region. So we have organised sub-regional cooperation.

DW: If we are also talking about national services, and as you say the Cook Islands has got a miniscule one compared to China, yet the Cook Islands just about covers the same amount as territory as China.

MJ: Actually, I would not say that it is miniscule because even compared to the population, actually it is quite significant if you normalise it with the population. So the efforts made by many of the small islands on meteorology is actually quite significant compared to the size of the country.

DW: Yes, but in terms of what you're talking about, you're talking about the most sophisticated, I would imagine, machinery and technology and skills that are available and that's what these countries need to have access to as well as the first world countries, don't they?

MJ: Yeah, what we are talking is both technical equipment but also human capacity. And when it comes to technical equipment most of the countries are connected to a global system which is organised under the WMO which ensures even the smallest country, for example, can have access to information from satellites operated by USA, Europe, Japan, China, etc. But at the same time, you need locally human capacity to access this information and to translate it to something suitable for the local uses. To develop these human capacity the size of some of these small islands are so small, you cannot have first of all university training, meteorology in each of the small islands. So we have also organised a network of regional training centres where people from even the smallest country can be trained and have the same quality training as people from developed countries. And this training is supported by development agencies in more developed countries.

DW: Yes. Although of course what you're talking about is going to be asking those nations and others to provide a lot more money for this if it is going to work.

MJ: Actually, you see when you talk about meteorology. The investment is actually quite small, it's a very, very good investment. We are not talking tens of billions of dollars to do that, we are talking some quite modest sized investments, mostly in observation and in human capacity.

DW: When you go to the SIDS conference at the end of this month, this will be the cornerstone of what the WMO is going to be talking with the small countries and the big countries that are there about?

MJ: One of the big messages for WMO for the SIDS conference is that it is important that everyone is working or having to make decisions in the climate sectors, as I've said is to better information.

DW: So improved communications, in an area where communications are getting a lot better but there is still significant problems, say compared with big cities in Europe.

MJ: Yes. Improved communication but also improved infrastructure and better use of the information in decision making, sort of making decisions, integrating scenarios for the next 30, 40 years. Things which are in terms of probability rather than deterministic information. This is also making sure that the information is packaged in a way which can be used by decision makers and it is not a traditional way. It is going to be a significant challenge.