GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. weather agency is sounding a “red alert” on global warming, citing record increases in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice last year, and warning that the world’s efforts to stop it should continue. It was insufficient to reverse the trend.
The World Meteorological Organization said there was a “high probability” that 2024 would be a record warm year.
In its “State of the Global Climate” report released Tuesday, the Geneva-based agency raised concerns that a much-vaunted climate target is increasingly endangered: Concerns that the world could unite to limit planetary warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). ) relative to pre-industrial levels.
“We have never been this close to the 1.5°C lower limit of the Paris climate change agreement, even if only temporarily,” said the agency’s secretary general, Celeste Saulo. “The WMO community is sending a red alert to the world.”
According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service, the 12-month period from March 2023 to February 2024 went beyond that 1.5-degree limit, averaging 1.56 C (2.81 F) warmer. He said the 2023 calendar year is just under 1.5 C at 1.48 C (2.66 F) but a record warm start to the year puts it above the 12-month average.
“The world is calling for an emergency,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The latest State of Global Climate report shows a planet is on the brink. “Fossil fuel pollution is taking climate chaos off the charts.”
Omar Baddour, WMO’s climate monitoring chief, said the year after an El Niño event, the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean that affects global weather, normally tends to be warmer.
“Therefore, we cannot say for sure that 2024 will be the hottest year. But let me tell you this: There is a high probability that 2024 will break 2023’s record again, but let’s wait and see,” he said. “January was the hottest January in history. So records are still being broken.”
The latest WMO findings are particularly striking when compiled into a single report. More than 90% of ocean waters will experience heat wave conditions at least once in 2023. Glaciers monitored since 1950 have caused the greatest loss of ice in history. Antarctic sea ice has fallen to its lowest level ever.
“Aside from all the bad news, what concerns me most is that the planet is now in a melting phase, given the warming and mass loss of our polar ice sheets,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School. said. Person responsible for Environment and Sustainability who is not included in the report.
Saulo called the climate crisis the “defining challenge facing humanity” and said it was coupled with a crisis of inequality, as seen in rising food insecurity and migration.
The impact of heatwaves, floods, droughts, bushfires and tropical cyclones made worse by climate change will be felt on lives and livelihoods on every continent by 2023, WMO said.
“This list of record-breaking events is truly distressing, but not a surprise given the steady pace of extreme events over the past year,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who was not involved in the WMO report. “The full cost of events that accelerate climate change across sectors and regions has never been meaningfully calculated, but the cost to biodiversity and the quality of life of future generations is incalculable.”
But the agency also acknowledged there was “a glimmer of hope” in preventing Earth’s fever from getting too high. It was stated that the renewable energy production capacity from wind, solar and water power increased by approximately 50% compared to 2022, reaching a total of 510 gigawatts.
The report comes as climate experts and government ministers will meet in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Thursday and Friday to press for more climate action, including increased national commitments to tackle global warming.
“The climate story gets worse every year; Every year WMO officials and others declare the latest report a wake-up call for policymakers,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, a former British Columbia MP.
“But each year, as the 24-hour news cycle ends, too many of our elected ‘leaders’ return to political grandstanding, partisan bickering, and advancing policies with demonstrable short-term results,” he said. “Most of the time,” he said. Everything else gets in the way of developing climate policy. So nothing is being done.”
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Borenstein reported from Washington, D.C.
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