CREWS Initiative

Strengthening cooperation from early warning technology to climate finance

During the Meteorological Organization High-level Dialogue on Climate Science Information for Climate Finance in China, Dr ZhenLin Chen, Administrator of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) held a bilateral meeting with John Harding, Director of CREWS to discuss opportunities for strengthening practical cooperation between CMA and CREWS.

The discussion explored how CMA's scientific, operational and technological capabilities could be connected with CREWS' country-driven programmes, catalytic financing and multilateral implementation partnerships to support people-centred, risk-informed early warning systems, particularly in LDCs and SIDS.

Both sides exchanged views on moving from technical cooperation towards financing and scale: starting with country needs, matching appropriate technical expertise and solutions, strengthening national capacity, and exploring pathways towards larger and more sustainable climate and development investment.

The meeting also discussed opportunities for continued working-level engagement to identify practical areas for cooperation in early warning innovation, climate services, capacity development and climate finance, building on the momentum of the Beijing Dialogue.

👉 From country needs to technical cooperation, and from catalytic finance to sustainable scale.

From climate science to early action—and from catalytic finance to scale.

CREWS was pleased to contribute to the World Meteorological Organization High-level Dialogue on Climate Science Information for Climate Finance in China, bringing the perspective of catalytic financing for people-centred, risk-informed early warning systems in LDCs and SIDS.

Throughout the Dialogue, CREWS emphasized that strengthening early warning is not simply about financing technology or individual projects. Sustainable investment needs to connect risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, warning communication, preparedness and early action, while strengthening the national institutions, people and operational capacity that sustain these services over time.

CREWS Director John Harding contributed to the high-level discussion on financing the hydrometeorological value chain, highlighting the need to move from fragmented projects towards coherent national systems, and from catalytic finance towards larger and more sustainable investment.

The Dialogue also provided an important opportunity to explore how country demand, technical cooperation and climate finance can be better connected—bringing together national meteorological services, technical partners, multilateral development banks, climate funds and other financing partners.

As CREWS advances Strategy 2030, this pathway will remain central: helping vulnerable countries strengthen the foundations of people-centred early warning, demonstrate what works, and build pathways towards investment at scale.

From science to services. From warnings to action. From catalytic finance to scale.

Three days, one shared priority: sustainable early warning systems that protect lives and livelihoods for everyone.

Key takeaways from the :

👉 Move from projects to nationally owned systems. The discussions stressed the need for strengthened national institutions, regional cooperation and sustained public capacity.

👉 Warnings must reach people and lead to action. Success is not about the number of warnings issued, but whether trusted, inclusive information reaches communities in time and helps save lives and protect development gains.

👉 Early warning is an investment in resilience and development. Speakers called for sustained financing, stronger domestic commitment and better integration of climate and disaster risk into national investment and adaptation planning.

👉 Africa has made progress in closing the early warning capacity gap. As climate crisis is accelerating, greater scale and urgency are still needed to close remaining gaps and achieve universal multi-hazard early warning coverage.

During the session on Sustainable Financing Mechanisms, Maria Lourdes Kathleen Macasil highlighted CREWS’ catalytic role in scaling up early warning programmes, and the importance of country ownership and partnerships in unlocking sustained investment.

Looking ahead, the Forum will help shape priority commitments, partnerships and sustainable financing and governance approaches beyond 2027, and practical actions to close remaining gaps and accelerate across Africa.

Thank you to the Government of Ethiopia, the UNDRR Regional Office for Africa and all participants for bringing this important and timely dialogue together.

Special thanks to Kamal Kishore, Celeste Saulo, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Charles Mbeeta Businge, Selwin Hart, Claver Gatete, Moses Vilakati, and Mensur Dessie Nuri for their leadership and continued commitment to advancing this effort across Africa.

The El Niño climate phenomenon is strengthening and the risks are growing. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) forecasts that it will persist through February 2027 and intensify into a very strong event in the coming months.

This could significantly shift rainfall and temperature patterns worldwide, fueling floods, drought and extreme heat.

WMO calls for more preparedness and early warnings to save lives and livelihoods.

👉 This week, CREWS is joining the in Addis Ababa, where partners and representatives from different sectors are exploring how to accelerate and sustain progress towards across Africa.

The number of countries reporting that they have multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) in place is now more than double the number reported in 2015. Yet major gaps remain, particularly in forecasting infrastructure, observational networks, last-mile communication, institutional coordination and sustainable financing.

Tomorrow, Maria Lourdes Kathleen Santos Macasil will speak during the session on Sustainable Financing Mechanisms, exploring how to move beyond short-term project funding and mobilize long-term investment for resilient, nationally owned early warning systems.

Stay tuned for updates!

🔗 Learn more: https://www.undrr.org/m/ew4all-africa-forum-2026/

👉 Across the Caribbean, early warning systems are helping turn forecasts into decisions and warnings into action.

This month, a series of national workshops in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Jamaica is strengthening the use of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and Impact-Based Forecasting and Warning Services (IBFWS).

Supported through Phase 2 of the CREWS Caribbean project, the workshops provide a platform for National Meteorological Services, disaster management agencies and other key stakeholders to collaborate in make warnings more coordinated, actionable and people-centred.

Through CAP, authoritative warnings can be shared consistently across multiple channels, while impact-based forecasting helps move the conversation from “What will the weather be?” to “What will the weather do, who could be affected, and what action should be taken?”

Thank you to the Meteorological Organization and the World Meteorological Organization for leading these efforts with national partners.



🔗 More info: https://www.ttt.live/new-early-warning-tools-implemented-to-support-regional-disaster-management/

✨On 30 June 2026, CREWS officially launched its Annual Report 2025: A Decade of Delivery at the Permanent Mission of Canada in Geneva, reflecting on ten years of action for people-centred early warning systems in least developed countries and small island developing States.

Thank you to the Permanent Mission of Canada for hosting the launch, and to our key partners and distinguished delegates for their participation, reflections and continued commitment.

Together, we are advancing the pathway forward to ensure that people most at risk receive timely, accurate, accessible and actionable early warnings.

Building on a decade of delivery, CREWS will continue working with countries, partners and contributing members to scale impact and help ensure that communities at the frontlines of climate risk can anticipate, prepare for and respond to hazards.

Thank you to our contributing members – 🇦🇺 Australia, 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇲🇨 Monaco, 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom – for their continued support and guidance.

🔗Read the report: https://crews-initiative.org/reports/annual-report-2025/

👉How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) power multi-hazard early warning systems?

At the Global Summit 2026, Maria Lourdes Kathleen Santos Macasil joined Mark Harvey from Resurgence, Juliet Rothenberg from Google and Carlyne Yu from United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) for a panel discussion to explore opportunities for collaboration, identify gaps, and discuss pathways to scale up support for multi-hazard early warning systems through the use of AI.

Maria Lourdes Kathleen Santos Macasil highlighted that CREWS promotes the importance of emerging technologies across the early warning value chain. AI should be embedded within national early warning strategies rather than financed as a separate innovation agenda. Building capacities of countries to mainstream low-cost AI solutions is important since technology delivers when accompanied by institutional capacity and effective partnerships.

As part of the session, Dr Lucy Milatila and Dr Roar Skålin presented the results, challenges, and the way forward from the AI for EW4All pilot project in Malawi. The Bris AI-based weather prediction model is simple and easy to operate, but it could be further improved for longer-range forecasting and by integrating a tool to link forecasts to impacts to enable the full value chain.

The session also featured insights from partners including from the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) on how AI can support the full cycle of multi-hazard early warning systems.

🔗Explore the report on Leveraging AI to Enhance Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Emergency-Telecommunications/Pages/Publications/ai-ew4all-report.aspx

💡At the 23rd CREWS Steering Committee meeting, Members and Partners came together to take stock of progress and chart the next steps toward delivering the CREWS Strategy 2030.

Francis Pigeon, Chair of the CREWS Steering Committee, welcomed Ambassador Adão Soares Barbosa, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, as he participated in the meeting for the first time.

“For LDCs, early warning systems are not only a technical priority – they’re a matter of saving lives, protecting livelihoods, […] and strengthening climate resilience,” he said.

Discussions focused on guiding the next phase of CREWS operations – helping translate the 2030 Strategy into practical, actionable plans that address the growing needs of least developed countries and small island developing States.

The Steering Committee approved an additional USD 2 million to support small-grants to address urgent needs and strategic gaps in early warning systems .

We extend our sincere appreciation to the Members – 🇦🇺 Australia, 🇦🇹 Austria, 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇫🇮 Finland, 🇫🇷 France, 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇱🇺 Luxembourg, 🇲🇨 Monaco, 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇨🇭 Switzerland, 🇬🇧 United Kingdom – and Partners for their continued support.