Opening remarks on the occasion of the WMO 75th anniversary event for Genève International

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends,  

Welcome to the World Meteorological Organization – the house of weather, water and climate.  Thank you for joining us to celebrate WMO’s 75th anniversary and our contribution to the international agenda.  

I would like to begin with a question.  

What does WMO mean to you?  

WMO conference photos from the 1950s show a World Moustache Organization.  

Searches on LinkedIn often go to World Mediation Organization.  

Some UN critics have even suggested World Money Organization.  

So what does WMO really mean to you in this room, to International Geneva and to billions of people around the globe. And why does WMO matter?  

To answer that question, I would like to give you an insight into a world without WMO.  

Let me take you back to a moment few people today actually recall -  myself  included, as I was only six years old at the time. It remains in the collective memory of meteorologists and it haunts us.    

In early November 1970, a small group of forecasters received fragmented surface observations from across the Bay of Bengal. It was the formation of what would become the Bhola cyclone — the deadliest tropical cyclone in recorded history.  

Communications were unreliable; codes were inconsistent. There were major regional gaps in observing networks and telecommunications. The warnings were insufficient.  

Up to half a million people died – nobody knows how many exactly.  

That tragedy was not only meteorological - it was institutional.  

It is a stark reminder of the catastrophes we would face without WMO’s global forecasting and warning system.  

We will never let it happen again.  

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends,  

We gather today to mark a milestone that is much more than an anniversary.  

Seventy-five years ago, nations chose to invest in something both visionary and deeply pragmatic: a system of cooperation strong enough to transcend political cycles and geographical borders: the World Meteorological Organization.  

WMO was founded in 1950 in a world without satellites or supercomputers - born in the reality that no country could face the weather, the water, or the climate challenges alone.  

That conviction gave rise to one of the greatest achievements of international collaboration: the free and open exchange of meteorological data - a principle that sustains every forecast made today.  

WMO’s history is not just a long one; it is a living one.  

It is a history built by scientists and observers in mountain stations and river basins; by meteorologists who release weather balloons twice a day every day or collect measurements on ships and on planes; by the computer processors who crunch and share the data which reaches our mobile phones and TV screens.  

WMO is a showcase for data diplomacy, based on science and trust. Because trust begins with evidence. And evidence begins with observations.  

WMO is proof that knowledge, when shared, becomes the strongest bridge between nations and generations.  

Let’s cast our minds back to the early 1960s – the height of the Cold War.  

The launch of the world’s first dedicated weather satellite, TIROS-1, by the USA on 1 April 1960, was closely followed by a satellite launch by the Soviet Union.  

Fortunately, scientific cooperation triumphed over political differences. In1963 , WMO oversaw the creation of the World Weather Watch, a worldwide system for observing and exchanging meteorological observations. It preceded the World Wide Web by many years - and remains just as important as a pillar of the global economy.  

Let me be clear: WMO’s immense and often invisible observing and prediction systems not only protect people. Our prediction systems strengthen productivity, support food security, and underpin the sustainable growth that our societies depend on.  

WMO remains the backbone of a global ecosystem that saves lives and money every single day, from aviation routing to flood protection, from drought preparedness to climate monitoring.  

The Present — A System Under Pressure, Yet Indispensable  

The world is more interconnected, more exposed, and more dependent on environmental intelligence than ever before.  

Today, as we celebrate 75 years, WMO also stands shoulder-to-shoulder with sister institutions. We are an integrated and indispensable part of the UN family and a proud leader of the Early Warnings for All initiative.  

At the High-Level Early Warnings for All event opening our Extraordinary Congress in October, I launched a Call to Action. I emphasized that trust, open data and sustained investment are the foundations that allow early warnings to protect lives.  

Just two days later, the United Nations Secretary-General told our Congress that:  

“WMO is becoming more important than ever… early warning systems will be vital as the world approaches inevitable (temperatures) overshoot.”  

It was not just praise — it was a recognition of the scale of responsibility now placed on our shoulders.  The importance of early warnings was also reflected in the G20 Disaster Risk Reduction Ministerial Declaration on “reducing vulnerabilities and addressing inequalities”  

Most recently, I was honoured to open the Belém Climate Summit by presenting WMO’s State of the Global Climate Update – ahead of the COP of Truth. We have just had the 11 warmest years on record and it will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 °C in the next few years without temporarily overshooting this target.  

But the science is equally clear that it’s essential to bring temperatures back down to 1.5 °C by the end of the century.  

To put this in context.  

I was a 320 parts per million baby.  

Yes, exactly, I was born when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was less than 320 parts per million.  

In 2024, when my grandson turned 1, it reached nearly 424 parts per million.  

These are more than just statistics. Every part per million of CO2 increase and every fraction of a degree of warming makes a difference and will impact our planet and its people for many generations to come.  

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:  

If you allow me one more thought experiment:  

Imagine climate negotiators without independent greenhouse gas monitoring.  

Imagine humanitarian agencies anticipating floods without regional centres feeding them impact-based forecasts.  

Imagine health workers preparing for climate-related risks with no advance information on temperatures and rainfall.  

Imagine water and energy planners relying on obsolete climate data to design infrastructure which has to last for decades.  

Imagine global aviation without consolidated “Significant Meteorological Information” (SIGMET) standards.  

Or imagine — as sometimes quietly happens — a world where meteorological data becomes a traded commodity instead of a shared public good.  

In all these scenarios, the world becomes more fragile, not more secure.  

The Future — Staying True to Our Purpose While Adapting to New Realities  

WMO is more relevant and needed than ever before. And yet, we face a paradox familiar to many multilateral organizations.  

The issues we deal with — weather forecasts, early warnings, data exchange, water resource management, climate monitoring — are central to development, security and humanitarian objectives. And still, investment patterns fall far short of needs.  

It is simply a structural reality: the huge socio-economic benefits of weather, climate and water services are long-term and diffuse, while budgets are short-term and constrained.  

The last Extraordinary Congress reflects this contradiction.  

Members have expressed strong commitment to our priorities including Early Warnings for All, the Global Basic Observing Network and digital transformation. But financial uncertainties cast a big shadow over our work.  

Our challenge is to protect the integrity of global public goods, whilst also supporting Members who have competing national pressures.  

We must meet this challenge with diplomacy, transparency and an unwavering respect for Member sovereignty.  

As we look toward the next 75 years, three threads of continuity guide us.  

First, science and trust must remain the anchor of collective action.  

Second, the value of WMO will increasingly depend on our ability to protect and expand global public goods.  

Third, adaptation, innovation and equity must advance together.  

As we look forward, the partnerships that guide us today will only deepen.  

Together with the UN Environment Programme, we will remain the proud custodians of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  

With the International Telecommunication Union, we will work to close the digital divide and shape the next generation of warning dissemination.  

With UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, we will ensure that risk governance, preparedness and community engagement is based on knowledge and science.  

With the International Maritime Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization, we will work to ensure that ocean and air transport remain safe and efficient, even as more extreme weather and our changing climate reshapes routes and operations.  

With the Food and Agriculture Organization, we will increasingly support climate-resilient agriculture. And with the World Health Organization, we will strengthen climate–health intelligence for a warming world.  

With IFRC and humanitarian partners, we will seek to ensure that early warnings lead to early action – based on reliable impact-based forecasting and real-time environmental intelligence.  

As we mark 75 years, let us honour the past not with nostalgia, but with a renewed commitment to the principles that made WMO possible: cooperation, openness, trust, scientific rigour and service to humanity.  

Our future will be shaped by technology — by Artificial Intelligence, by digital platforms, by increasingly seamless Earth system modelling.  

It will also be shaped by the human commitment that defines our community.  WMO does not have VIP goodwill ambassadors but we have thousands of unsung heroes and heroines.  

The engineers who repair stations after a storm.  

The hydrologists who monitor rivers at dawn.  

The forecasters who stay awake through the night because someone, somewhere, may need to decide whether to evacuate.  

The oceanographers who brave the waves.  

The observers in remote and lonely locations.  

This is WMO at 75.  

A scientific institution born of diplomacy.  

A diplomatic institution sustained by science.  

And a community whose work — quietly, meticulously — protects the world.  

Thank you.