With weather events and climate change affecting the lives, safety and security of people across the planet, international cooperation on meteorology, climatology and operational hydrology is crucial. Geneva is playing host to the World Meteorological Congress, the highest decision-making body of WMO (the UN agency responsible for these matters), from 20 to 23 October 2025.
In her opening address, Ms Baume-Schneider, who is also Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA), highlighted the sterling work done by WMO: "Without WMO's global activities, linking up weather systems and supporting exchanges of data worldwide, it would be almost impossible to issue effective warnings for authorities and civil protection organisations. The meteorological community shows that we all benefit from international cooperation." She highlighted Switzerland's support for WMO and its ongoing commitment to ensuring that the organisation can work under the best possible conditions in Geneva.
A focus of this year's extraordinary session of the Congress is the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure that everyone across the globe is protected by early warning systems by 2027. Relevant national and local authorities as well as humanitarian organisations rely on weather and climate data being as accurate as possible to be able to take precautionary measures to protect the public. WMO is therefore promoting access to this critical information. The Swiss Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), through its “Weather4UN” pilot project, is playing a key role in international early warning systems. This initiative, supported by the Swiss Federal Council, enables humanitarian organisations to take early action and so reduce the effects of extreme weather events on populations.The constant refinement of weather, water and climate data is leading to ever more accurate forecasting of extreme events such as droughts, floods or storms.
This extraordinary session of the World Meteorological Congress will also deliberate on the prioritisation and funding of WMO's core programmes. In the face of climate change and the increasing frequency of natural disasters, WMO must remain able to perform its duties. Switzerland is one of 187 member states providing support to WMO to keep it on a firm financial footing in the years ahead.
Christian Favre, Joint Head of Communications, FDHA
christian.favre@gs-edi.admin.ch
Tel. +41 79 897 61 91
Barbara Galliker, Head of Communications, MeteoSwiss
media@meteoswiss.ch
Tel. +41 58 460 97 00