The natural disasters that are marking the year 2022, from heat waves in Europe to floods in Pakistan or droughts in China, Africa and the US, “are the price of human addiction to fossil fuels” such as coal, gas or oil, said UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“There is nothing natural about the scale of these disasters,” Guterres stressed today, who indicated that climate-related catastrophes have multiplied by five in the last half century and cause daily losses of more than 200 million dollars.
G20 agrees to advance in ecological transition but disagrees on eliminating fuel subsidies or limiting global warming
“Year after year we continue to play double or nothing with this addiction, despite the fact that the symptoms worsen since we know what the cure is,” Guterres stressed in a video message during the presentation of a new report on climate impact, coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Guterres, who has just visited Pakistan to see the effects caused by the worst floods in the country in decades, defended that the G20 countries are the ones who have to lead the fight against climate change, since they are responsible for 80 percent of the Emissions of greenhouse gases.
He also stressed that the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes a good part of the most prosperous economies, would have to abandon the use of coal as an energy source before 2030, and that the rest of the world should do it in another ten years.
“The current ‘fossil fuels for all’ policy must end now, because it is a recipe for permanent climate chaos and suffering,” the Portuguese concluded.
The WMO report, which compiles information from previous studies and provisional data, indicates, among other things, that the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to grow, despite the reduction in emissions that occurred in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
In 2021 carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere exceeded 410 parts per million, about 150% higher than pre-industrial (1750) levels, and in 2022 some provisional measurements have reached 430 parts per million , says the WMO.
After a 5.8% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020, favored by the restrictions derived from the covid-19 pandemic, preliminary data for 2022 conclude that 2019 levels have already been exceeded by 1.2% , the last year prior to the health crisis.
The report also recalls that the global average temperature in the five-year period 2018-2022 has been around 1.17 degrees Celsius above the average for 1850-1900, that the last five years have been the hottest on record. measurements, and that there is a 93% chance that this record will be broken in the next five years.
The report also includes the warnings of the United Nations Environment Program, which indicated that even with the promises of emission reductions and carbon neutrality that many countries have made, the average global temperature this century could be around 2.1 degrees.
If the current situation were to continue, the rise in average temperatures would be worse, up to 2.8 degrees, and both possibilities are not very encouraging if one takes into account that the Paris Agreement for the fight against climate change set the limit maximum to stop global warming by 1.5 degrees. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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