Al Mandous Chairs World Meteorological Organisation Executive Council Meeting

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 06th Jun, 2023) Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, the newly elected President of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Director General of the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) in the UAE, chaired the seventy-seventh session of WMO’ Executive Council (EC-77).

Running in Geneva, Switzerland on 5th and 6th June, 2023, the session discussed key topics related to general, legal, policy and regulatory matters, implementation of WMO Congress and Executive Council decision on technical matters, review of Executive Council’s subsidiary bodies and the budget for the next biennium.

The meeting also adopted draft resolutions and documents prepared by WMO Secretariat and announced the winners of the 68th International Meteorological Organisation prize and 2023 WMO Research Award.

The meeting marked the first Executive Council session to be chaired by Dr. Al Mandous following his last week’s election as the new WMO President for a four-year term from 2023 to 2027.

Dr. Al Mandous said, “I want to thank all WMO Members for placing their trust in me to lead this great scientific UN organisation as its President. WMO continues to provide world leadership and expertise in international cooperation in the delivery and use of high-quality, authoritative weather, climate, hydrological and related environmental services by its Members for the well-being of societies of all nations.”

He added, "At WMO, we recognise the need to improve our capabilities in observation and prediction to ensure a safer and more resilient future for all. We firmly believe that achieving this goal by 2027 is not only possible but essential to fulfil the objectives of the UN ‘Early Warnings for All’ Initiative.

It requires us to close the gaps in our observation and prediction systems and promote impact-based forecasting. To make this a reality, we must scale up investments, extend our support to LDCs, SIDS and other vulnerable countries, foster collaboration, strengthen risk information, improve data management, and leverage cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.”

Al Mandous also congratulated WMO’s newly elected Secretary General, three Vice Presidents and WMO Executive Council members, and highlighted the UAE's commitment to supporting its efforts to address the challenges posed by climate change and extreme weather events.

The Executive Council serves as the executive body of the WMO. In addition to implementing the decisions of Congress, it coordinates programmes, manages the budget, considers and acts on resolutions and recommendations from the regional associations and technical commissions, and studies and makes recommendations on matters affecting international meteorology and related activities.

Last week, the UAE won the presidency of WMO, and Dr. Al Mandous was elected as the new President of WMO for a four-year term from 2023 to 2027. This significant appointment gives the country an instrumental role in promoting global collaboration in advancing weather and climate science for the benefit of all nations.

With over 30 years of outstanding experience in meteorology and climate science, Dr. Al Mandous is highly regarded and well-known to the global weather and climate community.

He has played a crucial role in the advancement of the UAE's meteorological capabilities, and strengthening collaboration among national meteorological organisations of RA II (Asia) member countries.