“The record global heat should give world leaders goosebumps.”
November 30, 2023, 7:50 a.m. ET
• 7 min reading
LONDON – 2023 may still be a full month away, but the United Nations announced Thursday that 2023 will be the warmest year on record.
“Although 2023 is not over yet, a preliminary report from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that it will be the warmest year on record, with global temperatures 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will rise, according to a statement from the United Nations announced on Thursday.
The world is warming at an unprecedented rate, according to new climate data, and UN chief António Guterres urged leaders gathered for the COP28 conference – which opened in Dubai on Thursday – to get us out of “deep trouble to get out. ”
“We are witnessing climate collapse in real time – and the impacts are devastating,” he warned in a video statement accompanying the report’s release on the first day of this year’s annual UN climate talks.
Guterres said the race to maintain the 1.5-degree limit agreed by world leaders in Paris in 2015 was on, but challenges remained as great as ever.
According to the new report, the maximum ice extent of the Antarctic Sea this year was one million square kilometers below the previous record low at the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire on burned peatland and fields in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 23, 2023.Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
Meanwhile, glaciers in western North America and the European Alps also experienced a “season of extreme melt.”
“From deadly Cyclone Daniel in Libya in September to devastating floods in the Horn of Africa after five consecutive droughts and severe smoke pollution from Canada’s wildfires, [the] “The report highlights the dire impacts of climate change on lives, health and livelihoods,” the United Nations said in its statement.
“These are more than just statistics,” said Petteri Taalas, head of the World Meteorological Organization, calling for action to “limit the risks of an increasingly inhospitable climate in this and the coming centuries.”
However, the report said carbon dioxide levels are now 50% higher than pre-industrial levels and that the gas’s long lifespan “means temperatures will continue to rise for many years to come.”
“Record global heat should give world leaders goosebumps,” Guterres said. “And it should cause them to take action.”
Guterres pointed to the existing roadmap to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and called on governments to set “clear expectations” for the next round of climate action plans and invest in their implementation.
Meanwhile, as the COP 28 conference begins, it plans to conduct the first-ever “global stocktake” to assess shared progress in reducing emissions and increasing adaptation efforts and support for developing countries hit hard by climate warming are affected, says the UN
The UN secretary-general said countries must “go further and faster to protect people from climate chaos”.
This includes ensuring that every person on earth is protected from extreme weather events through early warnings by 2027, and establishing a “loss and damage fund” to provide “generous, early contributions” to people affected by floods, droughts and other climate disasters Nations to support, he said.
“Developed countries must fulfill the pledge to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance, first made at COP15 in 2009, and double the amount of funding for adaptation efforts,” the United Nations said.
The UN Climate Change Conference will take place from Thursday to December 12th in Dubai and is the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which came into force in 1994. Over 60,000 delegates are expected, including UNFCCC member states, industry leaders, youth activists and representatives of indigenous communities.