World Metrological Day 2018: Weather Ready, Climate Smart
23rd March is the day each year when World Metrological Day is marked. It is the date in 1950 when the World Metrological Organisation was established. The theme for this year’s World Metrological Day is Weather-Ready, Climate Smart in support of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
According to Petteri Taalas Secretary-General World Meteorological Organization, “Making communities “weather-ready, climate-smart” requires the delivery of services that empower decision-makers to build societal resilience in the face of weather extremes and a changing climate.”
Climate change is leading to the frequency of extreme weather being experienced globally. The weather-ready, climate smart theme calls for a global agenda on sustainable development and adaptation to climate change. The World Metrological Organization recommends daily weather forecast and long term climate predictions to help people be weather-ready and climate smart.
Entrepreneurs start businesses out of a solution to a problem they have witnessed. Climate change causing extreme weather such as the flooding witnessed recently in the country is a big problem. Innovators with a solution or those looking for a solution to this issue can find support from the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC) which “provides holistic, country-driven support to accelerate the development, deployment and transfer of locally relevant climate and clean energy technologies. The KCIC provides incubation, capacity building services and financing to Kenyan entrepreneurs and new ventures that are developing innovative solutions in energy, water and agribusiness to address climate change challenges.”
The World Meteorological Organization reported that 2017 was one of the three warmest years on record. “The start of 2018 has continued where 2017 left off – with extreme weather claiming lives and destroying livelihoods. Australia and Argentina suffered extreme heatwaves, whilst drought continued in Kenya and Somalia, and the South African city of Cape Town struggled with acute water shortages,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “In the past quarter of a century, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have risen from 360 parts per million to more than 400 ppm. They will remain above that level for generations to come, committing our planet to a warmer future, with more weather, climate and water extremes,” said Mr Taalas.
Kenya has undertaken a national effort to achieve a tree cover of 15% by 2022. It is hoped this effort as well innovations that enterprising Kenyans come up with will help mitigate the effects of climate change and the extreme weather that follows.
