Decision-makers must not only invest in programs that mitigate against the effects of climate change, but also strengthen existing measures and take up new measures that can help populations, public as well as private businesses and services adapt to water scarcity, extreme weather and climate events and other natural hazards which may be exacerbated by climate change, said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement at the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference.

"It is now recognized that mitigation alone is unlikely to fully address, in a reasonable time, the challenges that human-induced climate change is likely to bring and that, therefore, much greater attention needs to be given to adaptation to climate change," Mr Jarraud said.

WMO is the United Nations system's authoritative voice on weather, climate and water, and as a co-founder along with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), hosts and co-sponsors the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was a joint-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize shared with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

WMO calls on countries to strengthen the existing international framework to coordinate scientific efforts for monitoring, detecting and understanding the climate and predicting future changes, as well as providing specialized information and services to users in key social and economic sectors to support informed decision-making for adaptation.

Improved decision-making for climate change adaptation needs countries to share experiences on how they incorporate climate information and model predictions in their planning decisions and assessing methodologies for translating climate information into social and economic benefits, said the WMO chief.

The Conference, opened on Monday in Bali, an Indonesian tourist resort city, brings together representatives of over 180 countries along with scientists, observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations. The two-week conference includes the sessions of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, its subsidiary bodies as well as the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. A ministerial segment in the second week will conclude the Conference.