On this World Tsunami Awareness Day, let us commit to closing these gaps by achieving Target G of the Sendai Framework to expand early warning and early action for everyone.

When the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, toured the damage caused by the recent floods in Pakistan, he called the devastation “climate carnage.”

“Extreme weather events do not need to become disasters,” says Mozambique's President Nyusi on International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, at the launch of a joint UNDRR-WMO publication on multi-hazard early warning systems.

‘We learnt that climate change is very, very expensive’. This was the candid reflection of the Deputy Mayor of Cologne, Germany, Mr Andreas Wolters as he recalled the havoc of severe flooding in his city 16 months ago.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged all countries to achieve 100 per cent coverage of their populations by early warning systems within the next five years.

This UNDRR-WMO joint report assesses the current global status of multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS) against Target G of the Sendai Framework, collating data officially reported by the Member States with data collected through a WMO survey.

A report from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns that half of the countries globally are not protected by Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems.

Early warning systems – and the ability to act on them – are proven life-savers.