The 2022 State of the World Climate Survey report shows increasing alarming signs of a climate emergency, which includes a doubling of the rate of sea level rise since 1993, to a new record high this year; and indications of unexpected glacier melt on the European Alps.
The full 2022 report should be released in the spring of 2023, but an interim study was published ahead of COP27, the UN climate conference, raising awareness of the huge scale of the problems that world leaders must face, if they want to. . have any hope of getting the climate crisis under control.
“The greater the warming, the worse the effects”, said WMO director Petter Taalas, who launched the report at an event held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the venue for this year’s conference. “We have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere right now that below 1.5 degrees of the Paris Agreement is barely within reach. It is too late for many glaciers and melting will continue for hundreds if not thousands of yearswith important implications for water security”.
Critical situations in all parts of the world
The report is a disturbing catalog of alarming climate events, occurring against the backdrop of record levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – the three main greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming – which are currently estimated to be around 1.15 degrees Celsius. above pre-employment levels.
In all the alps, a thickness loss of between three and more than four meters was recorded, while in Switzerland, all the snow melted in the summer, the first time this happened in recorded history; since the beginning of the century, the volume of glacier ice in the country has dropped by more than a third.
Global melting of ice has led to rising sea levels over the past 30 years, at rapidly increasing rates. The rate of ocean warming has been exceptionally high over the past two decades; Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and warming rates are expected to continue in the future.
The study explains the effects of both drought and excessive rain. Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia are facing crop failure and food insecurity, due to another season of below-average rainfall, while over a third of Pakistan was flooded in July and August, as a result of the rains he won the record, displacing almost eight million people.
The southern African region was hit by several hurricanes in two months at the beginning of the year, hitting Madagascar the hardest with heavy rains and devastating floods, and in September, Hurricane Ian caused great damage and loss of life in Cuba and southwest Florida.
Large parts of Europe are experiencing repeated episodes of extreme heat: the United Kingdom saw a new national record on July 19, when the temperature topped more than 40 °C for the first time. This comes with subjugation and devastating drought and wildfires.
Early warning for all
In a statement released on Sunday, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, described the WMO report as “the evolution of climate chaos,” which explains the catastrophic pace of climate change, which is destroying lives life and lives in every continent.
Confronted with the vulnerability of continuing climate shocks and extreme weather worldwide, Mr. Guterres is to launch an action plan at COP27 to achieve Early Warnings for All in the next five years.
The UN chief explained that early warning systems are essential, to protect people and the environment everywhere. “We must respond to the world’s distress signal with action, love, credible climate action,” he argued. “COP27 must be the place – and now must be the time”
