FOREWORD

Delivering Data Justice

Increasingly sophisticated technologies are being developed to predict the weather, while vast parts of the world still lack the means to adequately observe what is happening today.

There is something deeply troubling about this contradiction.

Weather and climate observations are a global public good. Every country depends on them, yet the resources available to generate and sustain them are profoundly unequal.

This year, SOFF developed an approach to measure countries' economic capacity to finance basic weather observations, comparing their GDP with the geographical area requiring observations. The results are striking. For every square kilometer requiring internationally agreed and mandatory observations, Switzerland has approximately 254,000 times greater economic capacity to finance them than Kiribati. Yet both countries contribute to the same global observing system.

These inequalities have consequences. Recent research found that a seven-day-ahead forecast in a high-income country is, on average, as accurate as a one-day-ahead forecast in a low-income country. And because the atmosphere knows no borders, missing observations in one country weaken forecasts elsewhere.

We risk flying blind at the very moment we need to see further ahead.

This is why this year’s report focuses on data justice. We need to ensure that every country has the means to generate and share essential observations, with support that reflects different economic capacities.

Delivering data justice is at the core of SOFF’s action. Five years ago, 193 countries and territories called for the creation of SOFF. WMO, UNDP and UNEP responded by establishing SOFF as the United Nations financing mechanism to help close these gaps. Today, that commitment is transforming into results.

With SOFF support, 64 countries have started to strengthen their observing capacity, 26 have entered the Investment Phase, and USD 133 million in investments has been approved. Across the portfolio, more than 50 stations are already sharing additional observations internationally.

These achievements reflect the leadership of countries and their national meteorological services, working alongside Peer Advisors, Implementing Entities, WMO as Technical Authority and funding partners.

But decades of previous failed investments have taught us that installing a weather station is not the same as sustaining an observation. Too often, funding ended, stations stopped operating and progress was lost. The adoption of SOFF's Compliance Phase Framework in 2026 is a defining milestone. It establishes a pathway to fulfil a promise made when SOFF was created: continued financial and technical support for as long as countries keep their observing systems operational and share observations internationally.

Much remains to be done. More than 100 countries have requested SOFF support. As Bhutan's Prime Minister, H.E. Tshering Tobgay, reminded us: “No nation should be left behind simply because it lacks the means to observe and to respond.”

We cannot build the future of weather forecasting while neglecting its foundations, and we cannot expect countries with very limited resources to sustain those foundations alone.