The world around us is facing many difficulties and perhaps the most important is coping with and adapting to change. The growing global population, poverty, access to fresh water, and food production are inextricably linked to climate change and to weather- and climate-related natural disasters.

To sustain development, the world's decision-makers need to be able to fully utilise the climate, weather and related environmental information that we, and our fellow institutions, produce. However, despite incredible progress in forecast skill and understanding of the climate system, each year parts of the world are devastated by weather and climate-related disasters because they are unable to use this information. Many colleagues in other met. services and environmental agencies around the world recognise this and, together, we are starting to address this problem and do something about it.

Achieving this requires an unprecedented level of international co-operation in global observations, in numerical prediction (e.g. multinational, multi-model forecasting systems), in research and development (climate, weather and socio-economic applications), and in the delivery of solutions. Collectively, we need to improve the use of high-impact weather and climate information and make best use of available global assistance and development resources. By doing so we can all provide the best products and services to meet our public weather service commitment to saving lives and property, and help reduce poverty in developing and least-developed countries.

While the optimum forecasting system of the future may be uncertain, we know that the distinction between weather and climate is arbitrary, that forecasts must be interactive, that observing systems must be adaptive, and that we must be able to turn weather, water and climate predictions into social and economic applications that inform critical decision making.