The promise of Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize forecasts and help build resilience to more extreme weather and climate impacts is high on the agenda of the World Meteorological Organization's Executive Council, which opened its annual session today.
The five-day meeting of the Executive Council will address progress on prioritiy initiatives such as Early Warnings For All. It will also seek to ensure that the WMO community continues to deliver its life-saving services and trusted science in a rapidly changing, more uncertain world.
WMO President Abdullah al Mandous said WMO must become "more effective, more efficient, and far more responsive to the challenges facing humanity and the urgent needs of the people we serve."
The EC session takes place during the 75th anniversary of WMO , which has the particularly apt theme of Science for Action.
"WMO has always been a place where cooperation precedes crisis. Where data is openly shared. Where operational trust is not aspirational - it is daily practice," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo .
"That foundation remains our strength. But the world around us is shifting. And we must decide-together-how to evolve, preserving our core identity and coming out stronger on the other side," she said.
"There is no resilient development, no food security, no disaster risk reduction, no climate action-without the services, science and infrastructure that we, collectively, provide," she said.
Rather than purely looking back on past achievements, the 75th anniversary has a forward-looking approach. This emphasizes the value of WMO services to the global economy and society , and the potential to unlock even more benefits for the global good.
