15 November 2025, Belém, Brazil – Pacific people centered approaches are at the heart of a Complementarity and Collaboration Agreement signed between the Weather Ready Programme (WRP) represented by the Chairman of the Pacific Meteorological Council and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme(SPREP) and the Chairman of Climate Risk and Early Warning System Initiative (CREWS) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion at COP30 on 13 November 2025.
The agreement ensures collaboration to scale up inclusive early warning and action in the Pacific through enhanced access to sustainable climate and disaster risk financing, and to strengthen the provision of weather and climate services for the safety and wellbeing of Pacific communities.
“For over a decade CREWS has provided support to the Pacific, and we have established this initiative as unique. Where we continue to put people at the centre of our approaches and that remains a priority for us as we look to the future”, said Mr Francis Pigeon, Chair of CREWS.
Representative of WMO, Mr Stefan Uhlenbrook conveyed his gratitude to the Secretariat and also echoed the basis of the initiative to keep people at the heart of all activities.
“Without good partnerships it’s impossible to implement early warning systems in general, especially the Pacific with the geographical challenges. We hope that we can upscale the implementation of CREWS projects to support the beneficiaries of our work.”
Providing remarks as a representative of the WRP Programme Steering Committee, Director for the National Disaster Management Office, Ms Takena Redfren says, “CREWS has supported us with a number of activities at the community level, and we look forward to further collaboration."
"We have our own programme in the Pacific, Weather Ready Pacific, and we would like to explore how these two initiatives can complement each other to support not only the National Meteorological Services but also the National Disaster Management Offices.”
SPREP Climate Change Resilience Programme Director, Ms Tagaloa Cooper thanked the WMO and the CREWS initiative for their invaluable contributions to the region in early warning action and systems. “We have signed a milestone document in the journey of the Pacific to resilience to ensure CREWS works closely with the Weather Ready Pacific to support our members. It is a step in the right direction to ensure the activities are better coordinated.”
“On behalf of the Director General of SPREP and our stakeholders, we extend our gratitude and we look forward to the next steps that enable SPREP to access funds directly from CREWS”.
For more information, please contact SPREP Climate Science and Information Programme Director, Mr Salesa Nihmei [email protected]