Climate Sense

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dAptAtion

And

itigAtion

trAtegieS

tion, governments and various customers are convinced of their

value. This is only helping to ensure adequate financial resources

are allocated to NHMSs in the future. The situation in many WMO

member countries, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. With

NHMSs and weather products in such countries being of a gener-

ally low quality and quantity, governments are not seeing the

value of allocating additional resources to them. This is having

a negative impact on the economy and human safety in affected

countries and serves as an obstacle for development, contradict-

ing many initiatives that have been set up to reverse this. The

functions of NHMSs, for example, are closely related to five out of

eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals tackle

poverty and hunger, health, education, environment and develop-

ment partnerships.

International collaboration and development

projects in essential role in strengthening the

national capabilities

Both natural disaster early warning systems and climate

change adaptation plans offer good perspectives for devel-

opment cooperation. The expertise of developed country

NHMSs and atmospheric research organizations may

be used in assisting developing countries and those in

economic transition. According to WMO, several coun-

tries – including Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Finland,

the UK, Spain, France, Germany and the US – are actively

assisting developing countries.

Finland and the Finnish Meteorological Institute

(FMI), for example, have supported more than 80 coun-

tries since the 1980s. At the moment, projects related to

adaptation to climate change and natural disaster early

warning systems are being run in small island devel-

oping states, both in the Caribbean and in the Pacific,

the Southern African Development Community coun-

tries, Peru, Nepal and Vietnam. The core of current

programmes involve institutional cooperation between

both FMI and NHMSs in other countries. FMI is also

working alongside China, India, Russia, Argentina and

Brazil besides several European and North American

countries in scientific projects.

Investments in natural disaster early warning systems

and preparation of climate change adaptation strategies are

good investments. Besides bi-lateral activities these fields

offer good opportunities for new programmes, especially

under major development donor organization frameworks

such as those of the World Bank, regional development

banks or the European Commission.

Consultancy and development cooperation projects since the 1980s

Scientific collaboration (blue); consultancy/development cooperation (red)

Source: FMI presentation material, 2009

Source: VTT Technical Research Centre Publications 665, 2007

Road transport

Pedestrians

Railway transport

Maritime

Aviation

Logistics

Building construction and facilities management

Agriculture

Expected total benefit with current services

13–18

80–100

0.4

32–50

54–55

Tens of millions

15–30

> 239–303

A summary of the socioeconomic value of the FMI for different user

segments. In 2007 the FMI budget was about EUR50 million