Climate change spurs UN weather forecasting plan
The United Nations has announced that it's rolling out funding plans to improve weather forecasting in vulnerable countries, to further protect them from climate change, including 75 small island nations and least-developed countries.
The announcement was made at the big climate conference happening in Glasgow, COP26.
The countries targeted by the initiative have done little to cause the climate crisis but face the biggest and costliest impacts as climate change triggers deadly heatwaves, droughts and floods.
The World Meteorological Organization said weather-related disasters have increased five-fold over the last 50 years.
And more than 91% of the associated deaths have occurred in developing countries.
The initiative aims to plug gaps in weather monitoring and data collection so developing countries can better prepare for climate-related disasters.
For example, in recent years, weather data for Africa has declined, as readings from weather balloons equipped with observation equipment decreased by about half between 2015-2020.
