World Meteorological Organization

To support the implementation of the recently adopted Unified data policy, this week the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretariat hosted a Regional Association VI Conference on the future role of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs): Leadership and Management. 

The Conference gathered WMO Member states represented by permanent representatives, hydrological advisers, ministries, private and academic sector, as well as high level representatives of the United Nations and European Commissions agencies, and regional private partner agencies. 

The event was livestreamed via Youtube. 

First day of the Conference was focused on Infrastructure for Research and Services, Research Activities for Services as a Core Business of Future NMHS, and Services to support core business of NMHSs. Watch on Youtube.  

Second day of the Conference aimed at engagement of public, private and academic sectors and gathered a good number of private and academic sector representatives. Watch on Youtube. 

Third day covered aspects of leadership and management but also of strategy and legislation. Watch on Youtube.

This Regional Conference will feed into the Ministerial level event planned for next year as a side event to the Regional Forum of the UNECE on Sustainable Development, where High Level Governmental representatives will meet to exchange information on the actions towards the achievement of the UN Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to encourage the peers to implement policies. Next year Forum on Sustainable Development will review the SDG 6 (Water), SDG 7 (Energy), SDG 9 (Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 17 (Partnerships). The SDG 5 (Gender Equality) is also to be considered as a cross-cutting component.  

The 2021 State of the climate in Europe as a regional flagship report was released in the afternoon of the first Conference day. This collaborative publication highlights the partnership to foster climate action and is a science-based policy report that provides an annual monitoring of the climate indicators, with messages on impact, risks and actions, based on authoritative data of Regional Climate Center, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and UN Agencies, such as UNECE, UNDRR, UNICEF, UN FAO and UN WHO, which may drive further discussions on future role of NMHSs.  High level representatives joined the launch event to highlight the importance of partnerships to address climate change, extreme events and disaster risk reduction towards achievement of sustainable development goals. Click HERE to watch the event and listen to the high level statements of the UN and EC  agencies as well as high level governmental representatives, such as ministers, deputy ministers and ambassadors.