Marking World Meteorological Day that falls on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said mitigating climate change and adapting to it are among the great tests of the time.
In his message on the day, Ban noted the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and other parts of Oceania, saying extreme weather and changing climatic patterns have taken a huge toll on lives and caused massive economic losses.
More than 166,000 people on 22 islands in Vanuatu have been affected by last week's Cyclone Pam, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"To rise to these challenges, we will need timely, reliable information for decision-making and action, delivered to those who need it, in a form that is accessible and usable," said Ban.
The World Meteorological Day is celebrated every year on March 23 to commemorate the creation of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialized agency of the UN for meteorology.
This year, the WMO is focusing on the need for climate knowledge which remains an invaluable resource and a prerequisite for decision-making for climate action, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told a daily briefing.
Disaster risk reduction is one of the UN's focus for this month. From March 14 to 18, Ban attended the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, where he called for massive investment in disaster risk reduction.
After the conference, the UN is expected to convene several times and adopt a new agreement on climate change later this year which can be seen as one of the highlights of this year's UN agenda.