![\"Deadly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AFP__20250813__69GP6Q4__v1__MidRes__GreeceFireEnvironment-1755156103.jpg\")
A resident runs amid smoke during a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece, August 13 [Aris Messinis\/AFP]<\/p>\nClimate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in 50 years, said the UN\u2019s meteorological agency, 90 percent of them in developing countries.<\/p>\n
Published On 20 Oct 202520 Oct 2025<\/p>\n
Click here to share on social media<\/p>\n
share2<\/p>\n
Nearly half of all countries lack early-warning systems for extreme weather events, leaving millions \u2013 especially those in developing nations \u2013 vulnerable.<\/p>\n
As it released a new report on Monday, the UN\u2019s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called for gaps in global monitoring and forecasting networks to be plugged. Timely alerts are crucial to saving lives as extreme weather events multiply due to climate change, it warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany millions of people lack protection against dangerous weather, which is inflicting an increasing toll on economic assets and vital infrastructure,\u201d said a statement by the WMO, noting that disaster-related deaths are six times higher in countries without early-warning systems.<\/p>\n
A resident runs amid smoke during a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece, August 13 [Aris Messinis\/AFP]<\/p>\n
The organisation said weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in the past 50 years. It added that 90 percent of those deaths occurred in developing countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cImpacts are spiralling as weather becomes more extreme,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Worst in conflict-affected contexts\u2019<\/p>\n
The WMO acknowledged that there has been \u201chuge progress\u201d in climate monitoring over the last decade. The number of countries using some form of multi-hazard early warning systems has jumped from 52 to at least 108.<\/p>\n
However, it continued, an assessment of 62 countries showed half of them possess only basic capacity and 16 percent have less than basic capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is worst in fragile, conflict and violence-affected contexts,\u201d the organisation said.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the WMO is seeing progress in Africa, with more countries having functioning websites and issuing standardised alerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly warning means early action. Our goal is to not only warn the world; it is to empower it,\u201d WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a speech as the UN institution opened its annual conference in Geneva on Monday.<\/p>\n
The world has been rocked by numerous weather-related disasters in 2025. Huge flooding has rocked countries including Pakistan<\/a>, Nigeria<\/a> and South Korea<\/a>. Wildfires have devastated large areas in southern Europe<\/a>, as well as the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n The head of Switzerland\u2019s Federal Department of Home Affairs, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, told delegates at the conference that no country or region was spared from the effects of climate change and extreme weather.<\/p>\n She pointed to the example of how the regular monitoring of a mountain glacier allowed scientists to warn about its imminent collapse in May 2025, allowing for the evacuation of the Swiss village of Blatten.<\/p>\n \u201cPermafrost melt will inevitably lead to more glacier collapses and rockfalls,\u201d making early warning systems vital, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in 50 years, said the UN\u2019s meteorological agency, 90…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":318744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10109,33025,746,50,159,67,132,68,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-318743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-climate-crisis","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115406950255358762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"epa12147257](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/13094001-1748781189.jpg\")
People search a flooded area after heavy rainfall in the town of Mokwa, Nigeria, May 31 [Afolabi Sotunde\/EPA-EFE]<\/p>\n