Strengthening the Early Warnings for All Initiative through SOFF
Strengthening climate and weather information services is crucial to the impacts of climate change. The Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) is an important multi-donor initiative addressing the problem. In just one year, USD 72 million has been pledged to SOFF and it keeps attracting new donors.
“I am proud of NDF’s role as an anchor donor and having substantially contributed to the design of SOFF. It is a truly innovative fund, financing a global public good in a new and systematic way. In one year, already 26 countries are receiving support," said Karin Isaksson from NDF.
The countries with the biggest weather data gaps are also the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The SOFF Steering Committee brought together decision-makers and leaders to discuss the progress of the initiative on 20-21 June in Copenhagen, Denmark. Funding for 10 additional countries was approved and 22 countries were given the green light to start working on funding requests to close the countries' basic weather and climate data gaps. More than 60 countries will be receiving SOFF support in 2023, including all initial countries for fast-track implementation of the UN Secretary-General's Early Warnings For All Initiative.
“Climate impacts are getting worse over time. SOFF has and will continue to play an important role to protect the livelihoods of those in the frontline of the climate crisis,” says Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition. He emphasized the vital partnership of the Office of the UN Secretary General.
The Steering Committee also adopted the Communication Strategy. In this framework, the SOFF Secretariat launched the new website for SOFF: www.un-soff.org.
“I’m really impressed how fast SOFF has taken off and is on track to achieve global goals of closing the capacity gap of early warnings and related weather services by 2030. As a founding member of SOFF, we value the work in the global climate architecture,” says Mikko Ollikainen, Head of the Adaptation Fund.
You can read the decisions of the SOFF 5th Steering Committee meeting here.
The meeting started with a dynamic opening with three high-level speakers, Lotte Machon, Danish State Secretary for Development Policy, Karin Isaksson, Managing Director of Nordic Development Fund and Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of World Meteorological Organization. NDF has served as a co-chair of the Steering Committee, and NDF’s role has now been extended for the next year. The meeting was chaired by Aage Jorgensen from NDF and Anthony Rea from the WMO.
