Keynote Speech - SOFF Event - "Time to Scale UP"

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure — and a responsibility — to be here with you today.

Let me begin with a simple question: How can we act on what we do not observe? How can we adapt to what we cannot measure?

Systematic observations lie at the very heart of the Paris Agreement’s promise.

They are what allow us to understand, anticipate, and act on a changing climate. Without them, we are blind – and deaf.  

And the world is changing fast.

According to the State of the Climate Update I presented at the opening of the Belém Climate Summit, the year 2025 was  one of the three hottest years on record.  Heatwaves, floods, droughts, and storms are now striking with unprecedented intensity and frequency. Tropical cyclones have caused massive devastation in the past two weeks alone in Jamaica, the Philippines and Viet Nam.  

I send my deepest condolences to the victims. But I also stand before you today and say that without advance forecasts, early warnings and early action, the loss of life would have been much, much higher. And forecasts and early warnings depend on exchange of data from  stations on the ground, balloons in the sky, and buoys in the ocean that feed the global observing system.  

Every forecast, every early warning, every climate projection, every measure of progress — all of it depends on the systematic collection of weather and climate data.  

Ladies and gentlemen, WMO this year celebrates its 75th anniversary as a specialized UN agency. Throughout that time, free data exchange has been our guiding principle. In fact we are a showcase for data diplomacy – trust and collaboration.  

We can be proud of our progress – for all the lives we have saved, the communities we have protected and the economies we have supported.  

But, as we all know, big gaps remain. We need to go further, faster and together in closing those gaps.  

It is a moral obligation and an economic imperative.  The World Bank estimates that closing this global data gap could generate five billion US Dollars in direct annual gains and unlock up to 160 billion US dollars in wider economic gains across sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, and transport.  

This is why the mission of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility — SOFF – is so important to global well-being.

SOFF was created as the UN system’s joint response to close this gap. It enables countries, especially the most vulnerable, to generate and share the data that the world depends on.

And let me emphasize this: SOFF was not invented in a boardroom.

It was created at the request of the 193 Members of the World Meteorological Congress, by WMO, UNDP, and UNEP, as a UN fund for collective action.

Today, I am honored to acknowledge my dear colleagues and partners — Inger Andersen, Marcos Neto, and Alain Noudéhou — whose leadership and commitment continue to make SOFF a living example of what multilateralism can achieve when it works as one.

But colleagues, let us be honest.

Climate finance must not only increase — it must also deliver real, measurable impact. For this we need coordination and collaboration.

SOFF shows how this can be done.  

We are at the COP of truth, and this  is how we rebuild trust — through measurable progress.

And so, as we gather here in Belém, in the spirit of this place — rich in history, culture, and the voice of the Amazon — let us make a promise:

Let us go forward, be united around science, committed to equity, and determined to translate every promise into measurable progress and effective action.

Let me end by appreciating the generosity of the SOFF 12 founding funders

Our journey has only begun. To close the data gap once and for all, we need more partners, more ambition, and more courage.

I invite all of you — governments, institutions, and philanthropies — to join us.

Let’s make this the decade when no country is left unobserved.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to Scale UP.

Thank you.