China sought coop in monitoring, warning meteorological disasters with BRI countries
by Liu Qiyu
The 2021 Workshop on Regional Disaster Warning Capacity Enhancement in Asia is successfully held on December 9, 2021. [Photo/China Meteorological Administration (CMA)]
BEIJING, Dec. 10 (China Economic Net) - “Asian countries and the global community should join hands to enhance disaster monitoring and early warning capabilities, and promote the sharing of disaster risk and early warning information for ‘Belt and Road’ countries,” noted Yu Yong, Deputy Administrator of China Meteorological Administration (CMA), while addressing the 2021 Workshop on Regional Disaster Warning Capacity Enhancement in Asia, on December 9.
Hosted by CMA Public Meteorological Service Centre (PMSC, National Early Warning Center), the workshop is attended by officials, experts and representatives in the fields of early warning and disaster reduction management from European, North American and Asian countries.
According to The State of the Climate in Asia 2020, a multi-agency report released by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on October 26, climate-related hazards, especially floods, storms and droughts, affect people and their livelihood in many parts of Asia. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated disaster management efforts and countries faced the dual challenge of tackling the pandemic and climate-related hazards.
For some countries the impact was significant when translated into percentage of GDP, which was the case for India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Bangladesh and Pakistan, where damages exceed 0.5% of GDP, said the report.
The workshop is attended by officials, experts and representatives in the fields of early warning and disaster reduction management. [Photo/CMA]
Therefore, “in a region as vast and diverse as this, cooperation and collaboration are crucial not only in disaster risk reduction, but also in many other priority areas,” Ben Churchill - Head of Regional Office for Asia and the South-West Pacific, WMO - pinpointed, adding that information sharing allows people to leverage available resources and promptly identify gaps in capabilities, ensuring that people work efficiently and effectively.
On top of that, as online communication takes the lead amid the pandemic era, it is suggested to build an online sharing platform for members of WMO Regional Association for Asia (RAII) to promote regional and sub-regional cooperation.
Cao Zhiyu, senior engineer of National Early Warning Center, China, mentioned that for BRI countries, the meteorological support is committed in particular at regional level to a warning-based co-preparedness, in which warning related systems, techniques, products and ideas will be shared with China’s surrounding developing countries while contributing to Global Meteorological Alerting System (GMAS) at the same time.
（Editor:Liao Yifan）
