Climate Risk Early Warning Systems initiative launched at COP21

ABU is actively involved in reducing the vulnerability and exposure of nations and communities to weather-related disasters. The Union is leading the Media Stakeholder group on DRR and working with UNISDR to educate mass audiences about the effort of different stakeholders for climate change adaptation.

The ABU is happy to learn that the governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands have agreed to give more than US$80 million to equip up to 80 countries with better climate risk early warning systems.

Countries from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and, more broadly, nations in Africa will be the first to be supported. They are on the frontline of the most dramatic consequences of climate change and the least equipped with efficient early warning systems.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), over 80 percent of the world’s 48 LDCs have only a basic early warning system, while just a handful of the 40 SIDS have an effective early warning system in place.

The Climate Risk Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative was launched at the Oceanographic Institute in Paris as part of a raft of climate change solutions in the spotlight at the COP21 international climate summit in the French capital.