2021/03/24     Dresden, Germany

Image: Pexels/Greg

World Meteorological Day advocates for a better understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere. By adopting a low-pressure system, UNU-FLORES supports climate monitoring and raises awareness for scientific data to address climate change.

Weather observations are crucial to understand the correlations of developments in the Earth’s atmosphere and the reasons for an increasing number of weather extremes. While climate change is identified to be its main driver, the overall context of an ever-changing weather reality requires more data and thorough research.

In support of efforts advancing climate data, UNU-FLORES adopts a low-pressure system, naming it “Xenus”. It is a play on the alphabets that make up the “Nexus”, in Latin describing the act of tying together or something which binds. UNU-FLORES advocates for the Resource Nexus, striving for an integrative approach to the management of water, soil, waste, energy, and other resources for sustainable development. At the global level, climate change requires systems analysis to inform resource management decisions for energy and geo-resources.

World Meteorological Day is celebrated every year on 23 March and commemorates the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization, appreciating the work of meteorological and hydrological services worldwide. This year’s theme is “The Ocean, Our Climate and Weather”.

The association Berliner Wetterkarte e.V. and the Freie Universität Berlin administer the naming of vortexes that influence the weather in Central Europe in the year, and which may be used by meteorological services in their weather forecast in newspapers and on television. The contributions through vortex adoptions support efforts gathering and monitoring climate data at the weather station in Berlin-Dahlem.

UNU-FLORES’s research and advocacy on the Resource Nexus align with climate action to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Research projects, such as KlimaKonform and Multifunctional Use of Agricultural Landscapes Under Climate Change Conditions, aim to develop integrative and action-oriented strategies for adapting to climate change. The project on Sustainable Energy for Climate Protection targets energy dependence on fossil fuels, introducing biomass-based energy to smallholders. In his doctoral research, Dr Solomon Gebrechorkos, 2018 graduate from the Joint PhD Programme offered by UNU-FLORES and TU Dresden, addressed gaps in climate data in East Africa, thus, enabling high-resolution climate projection.

View the full list of low-pressure systems in 2021 and their godparents.