Candidate for the Executive Council of WMO

Dear colleague, 

To serve our global meteorological community in achieving the Long-term Goals, I am delighted to stand as a candidate for WMO Executive Council and would appreciate your support for my candidature. 

Weather and climate affect us across borders. We must collaborate globally to ensure all nations are prepared for challenges due to anthropogenic climate change, including the severe impacts of extreme events, which are becoming more frequent and more severe. Early Warning Systems (EWS) are proven, effective, and feasible climate adaptation measures that save lives, and provide a tenfold return on investment. Global coverage and availability of observations and forecasts are prerequisites for EWS. My candidature will focus on increasing the resilience of our most vulnerable populations by implementing the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative, which includes establishing the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), and by implementing the WMO Unified Data Policy. Ensuring that EWS provide actionable information to every person, will enhance adaptation, specifically in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. 

Norway financially supports SOFF and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute is a peer advisor in SOFF and has, for more than a decade, partnered with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Southeast Asia and Eastern/Southern Africa to increase their capacity and competence in weather and climate services. The support we provide, funded through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), is based on our experience with open source software, open data and user-centric services such as the Yr app. As such, Norway is committed to the principle that no Member should be left behind and actively supports Long-term Goal 4 by decreasing capacity gaps. 

To better understand and predict the impacts of climate change, I will support WMO’s strategic objective on addressing global risks associated with irreversible changes in the cryosphere. These risks include sea level rise, increased hazards through hydrological extreme events, and challenges to sustainable water supply. Due to Norway’s location in the Arctic, which is warming at twice the rate of the global average, this focus of my candidature is well supported by local expertise. Enhanced knowledge and observations of the cryosphere will be embedded in an earth system approach and feed back into earth system models that provide information essential to fulfil WMO’s Vision and Mission, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals for water, land and climate. My focus on the cryosphere within an earth system approach is reflected in Norway's co-leadership of and financial support for the Polar Coupled Analysis and Prediction for Services (PCAPS) project under WMO’s World Weather Research Programme. 

To achieve WMO’s overarching priorities of (1) enhanced preparedness, (2) climate-smart decision making, and (3) enhanced socioeconomic value of environmental services, my candidature will embrace novel technologies such as those based on artificial intelligence (AI) and interconnected sensors (Internet-of-Things). While these technologies are feared to be disruptive, they also provide opportunities whose exploration and utilisation I will support, with the goal of translating them into services. Taking part in the developments will ensure that the WMO community is not left behind in this rapidly evolving field. 

In the spirit of WMO, my candidature will be characterised by bringing together experts from all Members to work on the global challenges that we are facing and to collaboratively close the gap on early warnings, observations, technology and knowledge. Over the last years I served the WMO community as Vice-president and Acting president of RA VI and I am committed to provide further value as a member of the EC. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, if you would like more information about my candidature or wish to discuss how we together can further increase the value of WMO to its Members and the global community. 

Yours sincerely, 

Roar Skålin
Director General, Norwegian Meteorological Institute
Permanent Representative of Norway with WMO

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