Use of weather and climate information essential for SDG implementation

GRIGGS, DAVID; STAFFORD-SMITH, MARK; WARRILOW, DAVID; STREET, ROGER; VERA, CAROLINA; SCOBIE, MICHELLE; SOKONA, YOUBA

Nature Reviews Earth and Environment

Springer Nature

Año: 2021 vol. 2 p. 2 - 4

The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment1 is an ambitious plan for “people, planetand prosperity”, aimed at achieving a sustainable futurefor all. At its core are 17 Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs), the achievement of which is widelyaffected by weather and a changing climate2. To thatend, emphasis has been given to delivering weather andclimate services, such as identified through the GlobalFramework for Climate Services3, with informationpackaged in ways that support timely decision- making.Yet these approaches tend not to address whichdecision- making processes need what information, orwhy they need it4. Climate services also tend to be limitedto specific situations and SDGs (such as SDG 14, 15)where the need for weather and climate information isclear and obvious. However, it has been demonstratedthat weather and climate substantially impinge acrossall SDGs2, for example, flooding in Thailand affectingglobal computer supply chains for hard disc drives(SDG 8), or droughts affecting food shortages that intersectedwith social unrest and contributed to the ‘ArabSpring’ in 2010–2011 (SDG 16).Here, through identifying a continuum of decisionmakingcontexts, we demonstrate how weather and climateservices may be tailored to improve decision- makingacross all the SDGs.