Testifying at a US congressional hearing, Antonio Busalacchi, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), has stressed that the future success of US weather forecasting efforts relies on increasingly productive collaborations between the triad of academic and research communities, the public sector and the private sector.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) was one of the key issues at COP26 climate summit. Its overarching concept encompasses a breadth of approaches that involve biodiversity and ecological function, to benefit human well-being and nature. In terms of weather, water and climate change, it primarily implies working with the ecosystem’s capacity to reduce vulnerability and build resilience to climate change, enhance food security, manage water resources, and reduce disaster risk.
It is anticipated that the public, private and academic sectors within the GWE will play a greater role to design, implement and scale NbSs. The magnitude of effort to tailor climate information to improve ecosystem services is increasing upon emerging demand.
In the first in a series of blogs on the role of hydromet services in decarbonizing economies, we highlight the economic opportunities and societal benefits of strengthening the resilience of our basic infrastructure to the weather and climate. There is an immediate need, which goes hand in hand with the infrastructure investments in decarbonizing societies, to improve meteorological and hydrological information on all timescales and to blend this information with many other data sources in an integrated system that can greatly enhance the day-to-day functioning of society. The basic message is – decarbonizing society depends on strengthening hydromet services.