Petteri Taalas Candidate for the Position of Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization

Petteri Taalas Candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization

“Professor Taalas - A fresh management resource for the provision of better services for the WMO Members”

Nina Kellokoski Shutterstock Antonin Halas Marita Waenerber

Meteorological services are vital for well-being and safety

torms, drought and flooding are causing growing In order to minimize problems related to changes in economic losses and are leading to fatalities. The temperature and precipitation distribution, rise in sea level and fluency and security of air, ground and marine melting of glaciers, climate-change preparedness is needed. transportation is dependent on weather and sea Conversely, the change in Arctic ice and snow cover eases Sconditions. growing economic activities at northern latitudes.

As the world population and economies are growing, there The National Meteorological and Hydrological Services is an increasing demand for food and water resources. (NMHSs) have a key role in supporting their governments Investments in hydropower, solar and wind energies are needed to deal with these challenges. The World Meteorological to meet the ever-increasing demand for energy. Organization (WMO) facilitates the global network for the NMHSs so that they can better carry out their national Air pollution is causing health problems, and even shortening duties. life-expectancies.

The World Meteorological Organization “The NMHSs are in a key position to provide adequate warning he World Meteorological Organization made at stations, with balloons, from – a specialized agency of the United satellites, on vessels and aircrafts operated and safety services. By Nations – focuses on weather, water by the Members. These global observations focusing on concrete and climate. It has 191 member are made available to the Members in Tcountries. The Members are represented real time. The observations, numerical actions and by listening by the Permanent Representatives, who are forecasting models – run on super- to the needs of the typically directors of NMHSs. computers – and operational meteorologists NMHSs, the WMO and hydrologists form the basis of modern The WMO has been instrumental in meteorological services. The return on can best support them in establishing the global weather and climate investments made in meteorological services this task.” observing system. It consists of observations is typically ten-fold. – Petteri Taalas – Eumetsät Aulis Peltomaa Lindholm Timo

The WMO from 2016 onwards – preparing for global needs

ll Members of the WMO do not have equal Capacity development and resource mobilization means and resources to provide modern weather, at national and regional levels water and climate services. Many NMHSs have Increasing emphasis on resource mobilization to support insufficient observational resources, manpower ›› further development of NMHSs, especially in developing Aand infrastructure. Furthermore, cuts in public expenditure countries and in countries in economic transition. impact on how NMHSs fulfill their mandate. At the same Enhancing partnerships with funding and development time, rapid advances in atmospheric and marine sciences, agencies and other UN agencies leading to additional observing technologies, high-performance computing and resources and functionalities telecommunications offer new opportunities for the provision of better weather, climate and water services. ››Initiating dialogue with governments to plan the future development of the NMHSs upon the request of the Planning of WMO strategy for the financial period 2016–2019 Members is under way. The WMO secretariat in Geneva and its new ››Enhancing collaboration and transfer of know-how Secretary-General, to be elected in May 2015, will play a key role between countries for further development of service in executing the strategic goals together with the Members. capabilities of the NMHSs. Engaging research institutes and universities more in the work of the WMO to enable the he government of Finland has designated Professor transfer of know-how and thus to start new research-and- Petteri Taalas as candidate for the position of WMO’s development activities next Secretary-General for the term 2016–2019. He is motivated to work to provide better services for Effective and modern management for better services to Members TMembers and their NMHSs. This means: ››Focusing on action in all functions of the WMO, with Enhanced service and observing capabilities special emphasis on the needs expressed by the WMO of the Members/NMHSs Regions and their countries ››Supporting the NMHSs to provide adequate early warning ››Developing the WMO secretariat functions further by and safety services in their countries. Implementing the applying modern management practices, leading to better Global Framework for Climate Services leading to new or and more cost-efficient services for the Members and their advanced seasonal-to-decadal climate-service capabilities NMHSs ››Maintaining and further developing WMO Information ››Having action-oriented and effective WMO meetings with System (WIS) and the WMO Integrated Global Observing additional emphasis on the strategic questions and concrete System and providing easy access of the Members to the outcome of meetings global weather, water and climate observations and related environmental data Professor Petteri Taalas

■■ Professor Petteri Taalas ■■ Born 1961 in Helsinki, Finland ■■ PhD in Meteorology, Helsinki University, 1993 ■■ Director-General of Finnish Meteorological Institute, 2002–2005, 2007– ■■ Director of Development and Regional Activities Department of WMO, 2005–2007 ■■ Chairman of EUMETSAT Council, 2010–2014 ■■ Chairman of EUMETNET FINLAND Matias Takala Council, 2003–2005 ■■ Member of WMO Executive inland is a Nordic country with advanced scientific, Council, 2008– operational and technological skills in the expertise fields of the WMO. The Finnish Meteorological [email protected] Institute (FMI), led by Professor Petteri Taalas, is Veikko Somerpuro Veikko www.fmi.fi Famong the top national meteorological institutes in the world with a very strong and successful research-and- development division.

The FMI has participated actively in numerous functions of the WMO for several decades. The FMI has provided assistance to its sister NMHSs in all WMO Regions, in total “As a leader, my focus is on in more than 100 countries with investment of about 100 enhancing the usefulness of million US$ by the Government of Finland. The FMI provides a large variety of modern weather, the WMO activities from the climate and marine services for various customer sectors perspective of the Member including: air, road, rail and marine transportation, general public, safety authorities, media, air quality and the energy countries.” sector. The customer and partner satisfaction of the FMI is very high.

In Finland, the FMI is strongly networked in the high-level governmental decision-making bodies, where it has an important role in providing information on topics related to weather and climate.

Professor Petteri Taalas has strong scientific and managerial skills and the background required for the position of WMO Secretary-General. He is a development-oriented manager with thorough knowledge of the status and needs of the NMHSs both in developing and developed countries.