A new joint WMO/World Bank commitment was announced with the creation of an Alliance for Hydromet Development aimed at boosting climate and weather science and information for a resilient world. The initiative was announced on 12 October at an event on “Investing in a Climate Adapted World” held during the 2018 International Monetary Fund/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia.
The Alliance brings together developing countries, climate finance and development partners, the private sector and knowledge institutions to jointly increase the effectiveness of efforts to strengthen capacity for the delivery of weather and climate information services in developing countries.
According to the World Economic Forum 2018 Global Risks Report, four of the five most pressing risks that confront our world relate to weather, climate and water. This translates into rapidly increasing demands for the provision of weather, climate and water information services. However, many national hydrometeorological (hydromet) institutions in developing countries face major performance challenges due in part to a fragmented landscape of resources for effective hydromet development.
The Alliance aims to move from fragmentation to coherence, and from marginal results to large-scale impact. Priorities include:
- Supporting developing countries in closing the capacity gap so that they can deliver on the increasing demand for hydromet information and services
- Fostering financial innovation and solutions that create new opportunities to accelerate and scale up successful business models for realizing the increased socio-economic benefits of hydromet services
- Ensuring the sustainability of investments and innovations beyond the lifetimes of individual projects
The envisioned Alliance, along with the World Bank Adaptation & Resilience strategy and the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRiF) launched at the same event, set an ambitious framework of action to ramp up climate resilience action.
WMO and the World Bank also signed a new framework agreement to strengthen and streamline their cooperation. This substantially simplifies the process by which World Bank borrowers engage with WMO to provide technical assistance within the context of World Bank-financed operations.
