The climate agency UN issued a “Red alert” on global warming, citing unprecedented increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and the melting of glaciers and sea ice, and warning that global efforts to reverse the trend have been insufficient.
In its report issued Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) compounded fears that a much-talked-about climate goal is in jeopardy, that of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels. .
“We have never been so close – although at the moment it is only temporary – to the 1.5 ° C goal mentioned in the Paris climate agreement”said Celeste Saulo, the agency’s general secretary. “The WMO community is issuing a red alert to the entire world.”
The 12-month period between March 2023 and February 2024 went beyond the 1.5 degree limit, reaching an average of 1.56 °C (2.81 °F), according to the European climate agency Copernicus. It added that the 2023 calendar year was just below 1.5°C to 1.48°C (2.66°F), but the record heat so far this year was beyond that level for the 12-month average.
“The Earth is asking for help,” declared the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. “The most recent State of the World Climate report shows a planet on the brink of a precipice. Pollution from fossil fuels is triggering climate chaos.”
The new WMO findings are especially grim when they are included in the same report. In 2023, more than 90% of the oceans experienced heat wave conditions at least once. Glaciers monitored since 1950 have lost the most ice since records have been kept. Ice in the Arctic decreased to the lowest level ever seen.
“On top of all this bad news, what worries me most is that the planet is now in a melting phase, literally and figuratively, given the warming and mass loss of the polar ice sheets,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School of Environmental Studies, who was not involved in the study.
Saul called the climate crisis “the historic challenge facing humanity” and pointed out that it is combined with the crisis of inequality, evidenced by food insecurity and migration.
The WMO stated that the impact of heat waves, floods, droughts, forest fires and tropical cyclones, exacerbated by climate change, will be felt on the lives and livelihoods of humans on all continents in 2023.
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Source: Gestion
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