by GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. weather agency is issuing a “red alert” about global warming, citing record increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting glaciers and sea ice, and is warning that making world efforts. to reverse the trend being insufficient.
The World Meteorological Organization said there is a “high probability” that 2024 will be another warm year.
The Geneva-based agency, in a “State of the World Climate” report released Tuesday, raised concerns that a far-flung climate goal is more at risk than ever: That the world can come together to limit planetary warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius. (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels.
“We have never been so close – albeit temporarily at the moment – to the 1.5°C lower limit of the Paris agreement on climate change,” said Celeste Saulo, the agency’s secretary general. “The WMO community is red alerting the world.”
The 12-month period from March 2023 to February 2024 pushed past that 1.5-degree limit, averaging 1.56 C (2.81 F) higher, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service. He said calendar year 2023 was just below 1.5 C at 1.48 C (2.66 F), but a record warm start to this year pushed past that level for the 12-month average.
“The World is issuing an alarm call,” said the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. “The latest State of the World Climate report shows a planet on the brink. Fossil fuel pollution is causing climate chaos off the charts.”
Omar Baddour, WMO’s climate monitoring chief, said the year following an El Niño event – the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean that affects global weather patterns – is usually warmer.
“So we cannot definitively say that 2024 will be the hottest year. But what I would say: There is a high probability that 2024 will break the record of 2023 again, but we will wait and see,” he said. “January was the hottest January on record. So the records are still being broken.”
The latest WMO findings are particularly confusing when combined into one report. In 2023, over 90% of ocean waters experienced heat wave conditions at least once. Glaciers monitored since 1950 have lost the most ice on record. Antarctic sea ice retreated to a record low.
“On top of all the bad news, what worries me the most is that the planet is now collapsing – literally and figuratively given the warming and mass loss from our polar ice sheets,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School. for Environment and Sustainability, who were not involved in the report.
Saulo called the climate crisis “the defining challenge facing humanity” and said that it is accompanied by the crisis of inequality, as seen in the increase in food insecurity and migration.
WMO said the impact of heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones, exacerbated by climate change, on lives and livelihoods would be felt on all continents in 2023.
“This list of record-breaking events is truly distressing, although not surprising given the steady beat of extreme events over the past year,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who was not also involved in the WMO report. “The total cost of accelerated climate change events 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 admitted a “show of hope” as it tries to keep the World from too high a fever. He said that renewable energy generation capacity from wind, solar and water power rose by almost 50% from 2022 to a total of 510 gigawatts.
The report comes as climate experts and government ministers are to meet in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Thursday and Friday to press for better climate action, including increased national commitments to combat global warming.
“The climate situation gets worse every year; Every year WMO officials and others proclaim that the latest report is a wake-up call for decision-makers,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, a former British Columbia lawyer.
“But every year, once the 24-hour news cycle is over, far too many of our elected ‘leaders’ return to political posturing, partisan bias and promotion that have demonstrable short-term results, ” he said. Everything else will take precedence over the promotion of climate policy. And so, nothing gets done.”
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Borenstein reported from Washington, DC
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