RC Trebucq's Opening Remarks at the Regional Early Warning Systems Consortium (REWSC)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

•        Mr. Raul Salazar – Chief of UNDRR Secretariat for the Americas and fellow UNDRR colleagues.

•        Ms. Elizabeth Riley – CDEMA Executive Director and CDEMA colleagues.

•        Ms. John Harding - Head of Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems.

Colleagues’ representatives of UN Agencies and other organizations here today,

Good morning,

I am pleased to welcome you all to today’s Regional Early Warning Systems Consortium (REWSC). This moment we share is a great opportunity for us to think of how to better prepare for and adapt to for climate change. Allow me to congratulate CDEMA as the Chair and Multi-Hazard Early Warning System Coordinator along with the UNDRR Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, for convening this meeting.

Frankly, the Caribbean region stands on the frontlines of the current climate emergency. Globally, it ranks among the regions with the highest vulnerability. 2020 IMF research shows that of the 511 disasters worldwide to impact small states since 1950, around two-thirds (324) have been where we are - in the Caribbean.

Our region is seven times more likely to experience a natural hazard than larger states and incur as much as six times more damage. Natural disasters are the most frequent type experienced, and their frequency means that recovery can take years. Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda are fresh in our memory with the passage of Hurricanes Maria and Irma just 5 years ago.

As UNSG António Guterres shared on World Meteorological Day, global temperatures continue to rise. (I was in France recently and experienced the heatwave for myself) These rising temperatures make extreme weather events more frequent and more intense. We can continue action to limit global temperature rise, but we must equally invest in adaptation and resilience. Information that allows us to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods, and droughts is critical, yet one-third of the world's people, (mainly in least developed countries and SIDS), are still not covered by early warning systems.

This power of prediction is something we must harness and boost if we’re to build their capacity to act. I call on us to recognize the value of early warnings and early action as critical tools to reduce disaster risk and support climate adaptation. The message of UNSG was clear: The United Nations will spearhead new action to ensure every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems within five years. 

So, we’re working on it. Altogether the United Nations, under the Multicountry Sustainable Development Framework 2022-2026, will:

• Provide technical support to identify, design, implement and monitor solutions that tackle systemic multi-hazard risks and climate change on a regional, multi-country, national and local level.
• Build the capacities of key actors and support the upgrading of climate relevant data systems to better understand the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of those people who are disproportionately affected by different hazards and climate change, but who, at the same time, could contribute to individual and community resilience.
• And will support governments in designing resources mobilization strategies and developing strategic partnerships for climate and disaster risk reduction financing.

In this event, some of the UN agencies will be sharing key actions to contribute to a Multi Hazard Early Warning System. For example, WFP will present action related to vulnerability analysis and mapping with partners in the Caribbean to strengthen food security analysis, early warning systems and mapping capacities (awaiting verification). This includes support to monitoring, analysis and forecasting of hazards for early action and development of contingency plans. UNDP also will present some of the key activities including a report on Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, identifying gaps in the national system based on the application of the MHEWS Checklist, and making appropriate recommendations to address the gaps, and supporting the dissemination of warning information to camp based EWS (Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

Consider this my “food for thought” as we get into today’s meeting. Now the work begins. I welcome everyone again and welcome the next item on the agenda.