The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is the UN agency that serves a leading role in international efforts to monitor and protect the climate and the environment. Their work covers the areas of meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology (the distribution and movement of water on and below the earth’s surface), and geophysical sciences (physical processes and phenomena occurring in the earth and its vicinity).
We coordinate closely with WMO to establish international standards, recommended practices, procedures and guidance that enables WMO Members and ICAO Contracting States to fulfil their obligations in the delivery of meteorological and climatological services to aviation users worldwide.
ICAO Secretary General Mr Juan Carlos Salazar, and the Secretary-General of the WMO, Prof. Celeste Saulo, recently signed an update to the agreement that strengthens the longstanding collaboration between our two organizations.
We have maintained formal working arrangements since 1954. After seventy years of productive cooperation, this latest update, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), outlines the framework for continued coordination, cooperation and collaboration in aeronautical meteorology and other domains. These include the environmental impacts of aviation and the effects of climate change on aviation.
Mr. Yong Wang, Chief of ICAO’s Airport Operations and Infrastructure Section (Montreal, Canada), noted, “This update to the working arrangements comes at an opportune moment as the aviation industry is modernizing global air traffic management through system-wide information management.”
Adding to this, Mr. Greg Brock, Head of WMO’s Services for Aviation Division (Geneva, Switzerland) highlighted, “The more integrated, more intelligent use of customer-focused and cost-efficient meteorological and climatological information services that are necessary for safe, efficient, economic and environmentally-responsible air transportation will be critical to success in the face of climate change and more frequent extreme weather events”.
The updated working arrangements will enable both organizations to better serve the needs of ICAO Member States, WMO Members, and meteorological and aviation stakeholder communities across the public and private sectors. The working arrangements will be reviewed every five years and updated as necessary to ensure continued relevance and effectiveness.
