The secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Juan Carlos Salazar, and the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Prof. Celeste Saulo, have signed an update to the agreement that strengthens the collaboration between the two organizations.
Aviation climate impact
ICAO and WMO – both specialized agencies of the United Nations – have maintained formal working arrangements since 1954. After 70 years of productive cooperation, this latest update, formalized through a memorandum of understanding, 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.
The updated working arrangements will reportedly 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.
ICAO-WMO Collaboration
Yong Wang, chief of ICAO’s airport operations and infrastructure section, remarked, “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, Greg Brock, head of the WMO’s services for aviation division, 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”.
In related news, the WMO Executive Council recently approved a detailed roadmap to speed up and scale up efforts to ensure that early warnings cover everyone on the planet. Click here to read the full story.