October 18, 2024 – Dr Jian Liu, Director of UNEP Early Warning and Assessment Division and the founding director of UNEP-IEMP, and Ms. Quanying Ren, UNEP’s Early Warning for Environment Coordinator, visited UNEP-IEMP and engaged in discussions with UNEP-IEMP staff and students on Early Warning for Environment (EW4E).

A brief presentation was delivered by Ms. Quanying Ren. EW4E is established to complement the Early Warnings for All (EW4All), which is initiated in 2022 by the UN Secretary-General and focuses on climate change and related disasters. With the fact that nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste crises also need attention for early warning, EW4E was launched at the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in February 2024. Led by UNEP, the EW4E’s mission is to protect all developing countries with its services, and together with EW4ALL, to minimise risks of disasters from the triple planetary crisis. The services of the EW4E are (i) Monitoring, Data Collection and Processing, Data Analysis; (ii) AI supported Early Warning Services to Cities and Countries; and (iii) Multi-Media Broadcasts, Rapid Response and Decision-Making System.

After the presentation, there were lively discussions about the active role of AI in the EW4E, the collaboration between NSFC and UNEP, opportunities for the UNEP Member States and potential contributions from UNEP-IEMP.