UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarks at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference Meteorological Forum (Shanghai)

Excellencies, distinguished guests, dear friends.
It is a pleasure to be in Shanghai.
I thank the China Meteorological Administration and the Ministry of Ecology and the Environment for convening this forum.
Forum shows one of the clearest ways AI can serve humanity by helping save lives.
The climate crisis keeps accelerating.
The last 11 years were the hottest ever recorded.
Scientists now expect a temporary overshoot of 1.5 degree limits.
We must keep it as short and small as possible.
By drastically reducing emissions this decade and by accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables, every fraction of a degree matters and so thus every hour of warning.
As we meet, and El Nino is gathering strength in the Pacific.
Floods, storms, wildfires, and droughts will strike even harder.
Yet the world remains woefully unprepared.
Many countries still lack the most basic protection systems that warn of approaching danger.
Hundreds of millions of people are exposed, overwhelming in the least developed countries and small island developing states.
It is a profound injustice that those who did the least to cause this crisis are the least shielded from its impacts.
Adaptation is a lifeline, yet adaptation finance remains a fraction of what vulnerable countries need.
Developed countries have a duty to close that gap with support that matches the scale of the crisis.
I launched the early warning for all Initiative to help ensure every person on Earth is protected, and the same objectives is promoted by China's action plan on early warning for climate change adaptation and by this fantastic AI instrument of the CMA that is called Mazu.
Early warning systems are the most cost effective protection against climate disasters.
Where coverage is comprehensive, disaster deaths are at least six times lower.
A timely warning is the difference between the evacuation and a tragedy.
128 countries now have multi hazard early warning systems, more than double since 2015, but one third remain unprotected.
We urgently need to accelerate and artificial intelligence can help.
It can deliver faster, early warnings and alerts people can receive, understand, and act on.
A city that opens schooling centers before the it wave peaks, a fishing village that brings its boats ashore, a farmer who plants differently after being warned that rains will fail.
To succeed, technology must be rooted in equity.
I see three tests for AI in early warning.
First, observations and data.
No matter how powerful technology becomes, artificial intelligence cannot compensate for missing data.
The entire African continent has fewer stations meeting the standards of the global basic observation network than some individual European countries.
Without these basic observations, forecasts suffer and lives are at risk.
Our systematic observations financing facility exists to close these gaps and weather and climate data must be treated as a global public good.
Second, capacity and trust.
The countries most vulnerable to climate disasters often have the least access to these technologies.
These must change.
They need the capacity to develop, operate, and sustain these systems.
Warnings must reach every person at risk in languages they understand and through channels they can trust.
And third, the responsibility.
Artificial intelligence must help solve the climate crisis, not deepen it.
Its appetite for electricity, water and land is growing fast.
I've called on every major AI company to power its data centers with renewable energy by 2030 and to disclose its full environmental footprint.
Technology aimed at protecting people must also protect the planet.
Dear friends, early warnings for all demands a steep change in international cooperation.
I believe Masu can be one of the most important instruments to make that international cooperation effective for the protection of people and property.
China has been an important partner.
It's platforms, satellites, and AI models are already helping dozens of countries strengthen early warning systems.
These tools are built with other developing countries as partners, drawing on local data so nations can issue their own warnings.
The tools unveiled here today will widen that reach further.
This is the model the world needs with technology transfer, joint research and local capacities helping countries protect their people.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, early warning systems are an economic imperative, a development imperative, a security imperative, and above all, a matter of climate justice.
The technology is here.
I was amazed today with the demonstration I had at Masu in the other building where the center the conference was opened.
The partnerships are growing, and we have seen it here in this conference.
So now, let us match them with the urgency and investment that this moment let's deliver early warnings for all everywhere.
Thank you.