The United Nations Secretary General has warned that global warming is pushing the planet to the brink.
Antonio Guterres urged countries to implement disaster warning systems to protect people against extreme weather.
"Every one of the last ten years has been the hottest in history. Ocean heat is breaking records while decimating ecosystems. And no country is safe from fires, floods, storms and heatwaves," he said.
Mr Guterres was speaking to delegates at an extraordinary conference in Switzerland to mark the 75th year of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
He urged all countries to mobilise funding to enable a global system of surveillance to protect people from extreme weather.
"They give farmers the power to protect their crops and livestock. Enable families to evacuate safely. And protect entire communities from devastation," Mr Guterres said.
Being given notice 24 hours before a hazardous event can reduce damage by up to 30%, he added.
Over 60% of countries have introduced multi-hazard early warning systems since Mr Guterres launched an initiative in 2022 for all countries to have these in place by 2027.
In the past five decades, weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than two million people, with 90% of those deaths occurring in developing countries, the WMO said on Monday.
Mr Guterres said that developing nations were hampered in investing in warning systems by slowing growth and "crushing debt burdens".
He urged those meeting at next month's UN Climate Conference in Brazil - COP30 - to agree a plan to unlock more than €1 trillion annually in climate finance for developing countries by 2035.
The UN leader also called on nations to deliver bold new climate action plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C.
Super-warming methane gas being tackled too slowly - UN
A UN agency said that almost 90% of satellite-detected methane leaks flagged to governments and oil and gas companies are not being acknowledged.
The warning, from the International Methane Emissions Observatory, came ahead of the COP30 climate talks next month.
The observatory, which integrates over 17 satellites to observe plumes, reported a 12% response rate from 3,500 alerts from leaks detected across the oil and gas sector, marking limited progress from last year's response rate when only 1% of alerts resulted in action to prevent them.
Although methane stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide, which is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it is much more effective at trapping heat.
As a result, scientists consider cutting methane emissions to be the fastest way to tackle climate change in the near term.
More than 150 countries have signed a 2021 pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% this decade.
"Actions remain too slow," said Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen.
It oversees the observatory's Methane Alert and Response System that remotely detects leaks of the colourless gas.
"We are talking about tightening the screws in some cases," Ms Anderson said, referring to methane leaks from the oil and gas sector from venting and flaring. "We can't ignore these rather easy wins."
The report documented 25 instances where a notification led to a large emissions event being fixed.
At the start of this month, investors representing over €4.5 trillion of assets urged the European Union not to weaken its methane emissions law following concerns the bloc might relax the rules to facilitate increased US liquefied natural gas imports, as part of its efforts to smooth trade tensions.
Methane leaks from the oil and gas sector offer the most potential for mitigation, the observatory said.
But it also plans to expand its detection work to include emissions from other major sources, including metallurgical coal for steel production, waste, and agriculture, according to head of the observatory Giulia Ferrini.
