Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has said that India “fully supports the Secretary General’s agenda to achieve Early Warnings for All. The global pace of climate mitigation is not enough to contain the rate of climate change. There is an urgent need for the world to acknowledge the cascading natural hazards that cause substantial losses around the world.”
AFP
Jump To
Early warning for natural disasters
“With climate finance still scarce, climate adaptation in the form of early warning dissemination is key in safeguarding lives, and livelihoods. Early warnings for all play a part in not just containing the immediate physical impacts, but also mitigating the far-reaching long-term socio-economics implications that follow,” the minister said.
“Climate finance is still a mirage, and effective climate adaptation such as Early Warnings For All helps us collectively in our region toward reducing vulnerabilities and ensuring preparedness and swift and timely response to natural hazards,” he said.
How India became good in predicting cyclones
He also pointed out how, over the years, India has improved its early warning system for natural disasters, including cyclones, which have significantly reduced the human toll from extreme weather events.
AFP
“We have reduced mortality from cyclones by up to 90 per cent over the last 15 years. We have nearly 100 per cent coverage of early warning systems for cyclones on both the east and west coasts. Similarly, for other hazards – such as Heat waves – we are making swift progress, leading to much greater resilience of our communities, he further added.
“Over the last few years, we have made concerted efforts towards making early warning impact-based as well as more easily understandable and actionable by communities. We have integrated hazard, vulnerability and exposure information to develop Web – DCRA (Dynamic composite Risk Atlas) to enable swift and advanced action on early warnings,” he further said.
Reuters
Agencies work together to reduce cyclone deaths
The Cyclone Warning Division (CWD) at IMD, New Delhi also acts as a multilateral Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for monitoring, predicting and issuing warning services on tropical cyclones developing over the north Indian Ocean (one of the six centres in the world) along with 13 countries in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea region, he stated.
The collaboration helped in the exchange of meteorological data from the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and Arabian Sea countries to IMD and improved monitoring and forecast, he further stated.
Call for universal early warning system
India is among the nearly 50 countries that have joined the initiative called upon by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a universal early warning system.
Reuters
“Universal early warning coverage can save lives and deliver huge financial benefits,” Guterres said in a statement.
Click Here: Netherlands National Team soccer tracksuit
“Just 24 hours’ notice of an impending hazardous event can cut damage by 30 percent and yet, around the world, vulnerable communities have no way of knowing that hazardous weather is on its way.
“Half of the world lacks multi-hazard early warning systems. Even less have climate resilience measures and local disaster preparedness plans.”
“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,” said Guterres while unveiling the plan during the world leaders summit at the 27the session of the UN climate change negotiations (COP27).
AP
How universal early warning system will be implemented
The initiative, calling for initial new targeted investments of $3.1 billion between 2023 and 2027, would cover disaster risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, preparedness and response, and communication of early warnings for all across the globe.
The Executive Action Plan sets out the concrete way forward to achieve this goal.
The need is urgent. The number of recorded disasters has increased by a factor of five, driven in part by human-induced climate change and more extreme weather, and this trend is expected to continue.
For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.