The power of Artificial Intelligence and the private sector could be harnessed to ensure that everyone on Earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, or climate events through life-saving early warning systems.

That is the conclusion of two special dialogues, organised by the World Meteorological Congress, dedicated to mapping the strengths and potential contribution from the private sector to the gaps in providing early warnings of hazardous weather, hazardous water or hazardous climate events to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Early warning systems have helped decrease the number of deaths resulting from hazardous weather, water, or climate events, but major gaps still exist, especially in small islands and developing countries. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is determined to close these gaps and ensure that early warning systems protect everyone on Earth.

The “Early Warnings for All” project is aimed at delivering these warning by the end of 2027. The initiative is co-led by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), with support from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and other partners.

Major private sector companies are already working with WTO on this project.

Google wants to cooperate with WMO in pilot countries on floods and currently is working with the WMO co-sponsored Global Heat Health Information Network to tackle extreme heat and inform people how to stay safe and protect themselves. “We see unprecedented progress on AI to make strides in Early Warnings For All,” said Yossi Matias, Vice-President, Engineering & Research at Google.

Amazon is committed to leveraging the power of the Cloud for global early warning systems. It is supporting the new WMO Information System 2.0 (WIS 2.0), which is the framework for Earth Systems (meteorological, hydrological, climate and ocean) data sharing in the 21st century. It is based on the principle that no Member should be left behind, said Nelson Gonzalez, head of global impact computing at Amazon Web Services.

Meta has had disaster response features since 2014, reaching millions of people in communities impacted by crises across 125 countries. It has safety check alerts, crisis pages, community help, information from first responders and non-profit fundraisers, said Kaushik Sethuraman, Head of Programs, Social Impact at Meta.

More about Early Warnings for All.

More about the World Meteorological Congress dialogues and the Congress itself.