Global Climate Interim Study 2022 outlines increasingly severe signs of climate emergency, including rate of sea level rise doubling since 1993, to new record high in this year; and signs of unprecedented melting of glaciers in the European Alps.
The full 2022 report will be published in the spring of 2023, but the interim study has been launched ahead of COP27, the United Nations climate conference, raising awareness of the large scale of the problems that arise. world leaders have to deal with, if they want to. any hope of controlling the climate crisis.
“The greater the warming, the worse the effects,” WMO Chief Petter Taalas, who delivered the report at an event held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the venue for this year’s conference. “We now have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that 1.5 degrees lower of Paris Agreement barely within reach. It’s too late for many glaciers and melting will continue for hundreds if not thousands of yearswith major impacts on water security”.
Severe conditions in all parts of the world
The report is a dizzying catalog of worrisome climate events, coming against the backdrop of record levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – the three main greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. – currently estimated to be about 1.15 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Across the high mountains, an average loss of three to more than four meters in thickness has been recorded, while in Switzerland all the snow melts during the summer, the first time this has happened in history. recorded history; Since the turn of this century, the volume of river ice in the country has decreased by more than a third.
Increasing ice melt worldwide has led to sea level rise over the past 30 years, at a rapid rate of increase. The rate of ocean warming has been particularly high over the past two decades; Heat waves at sea are becoming more frequent and the rate of warming is expected to continue into the future.
The study details the effects of both drought and excessive rainfall. Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are facing crop failure and food insecurity, as another below-average rainy season, while more than a third of Pakistan’s area was flooded in July and August due to record rains. continent, displaced nearly 8 people. million people.
Southern Africa was hit by a series of cyclones for more than two months at the start of the year, hitting Madagascar hardest with torrential rain and devastating flooding, and in September Cyclone Ian was caused great damage and loss of life in Cuba and southwestern Florida.
Large swaths of Europe engulfed in repeated extreme heat waves: The UK saw a new national record on July 19, when temperatures hit more than 40 for the first time. °C. This was accompanied by a persistent and damaging drought and wildfire.
Early warning for all
In a statement released Sunday, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, described the WMO report as a “chronic of climate chaos”, which details the catastrophic pace of climate change, which is ravaging lives and livelihoods on every continent.
Faced with the inevitability of extreme weather and climate shocks worldwide, Mr. Guterres will launch an action plan at COP27 to achieve Early Warning for All in the next 5 years. .
The UN chief explained that early warning systems are needed to protect people and communities everywhere. We must respond to the planet’s distress signals with action, ambitious and credible climate action. “COP27 must be the place – and now must be the time”
