The past eight years are on track to be the hottest on record, according to a United Nations report, as UN chief Antonio Guterres warns the planet is sending out “a distress signal”.
The United Nations Weather and Climate Body released its annual status of the global climate report on Sunday, with another warning that the target of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C (2.7F) was “barely within reach”. .
Accelerating heat waves, melting glaciers and torrential rains have led to an increase in natural disasters, the World Meteorological Organization said at the opening of the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
“As COP27 begins, our planet is sending out a distress signal,” said Guterres, who described the report as “a chronicle of climate chaos.”
Representatives from nearly 200 countries, gathered in Egypt, will discuss how to keep the temperature rise to within 1.5°C as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a target some scientists say cannot be reached it is now unreachable.
The Earth has warmed by more than 1.1°C since the late 19th century, with about half of that increase occurring in the past 30 years, the report showed.
This year is on track to become the fifth or sixth warmest year on record, despite the impact of La Nina since 2020, a periodic and naturally occurring Pacific phenomenon that is cooling the atmosphere.
“All climatic signs are negative,” World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas told Al Jazeera from Sharm el-Sheikh. “We broke records for the key greenhouse gas concentrations carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide [levels].”
“I think the combination of the facts that we’re bringing to the table and the fact that we’ve started to see climate change impacts around the world … are wake-up calls and that’s why we have this climate conference,” he said.
Ocean surface water reached record temperatures in 2021 after warming particularly rapidly over the past 20 years. Surface water is responsible for absorbing more than 90 percent of the accumulated heat from human carbon emissions.
Heat waves at sea also increased, adversely affecting coral reefs and the half billion people who depend on them for food and livelihood.
The report warned that more than 50 percent of the ocean’s surface will have experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022.
Sea level rise has also doubled in the last 30 years as ice sheets and glaciers have melted rapidly. The phenomenon threatens tens of millions of people living in low-lying coastal areas.
“The messages in this report could hardly be darker,” said Mike Meredith, chief scientist at the British Antarctic Survey.
In March and April, a heat wave in South Asia was followed by floods in Pakistan, flooding a third of the country. At least 1,700 people died and eight million were displaced.
In East Africa, rainfall has been below average for four consecutive rainy seasons, the longest in 40 years, with 2022 set to deepen the drought.
China experienced the longest and most intense heat wave on record and the second driest summer. Similarly, repeated bouts of high temperatures in Europe caused many deaths.
“Loss and Damage” talks
The UN warning came as summit delegates agreed to hold discussions on compensating rich nations for poorer countries most likely to be hit by climate change.
“This creates, for the first time, an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of the COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the urgent issue of the funding arrangements needed to fill existing gaps and respond to loss and damage,” COP27 said -President Sameh Shoukry at the opening session.
The poorer nations, least responsible for climate-warming emissions but most vulnerable to its effects, are suffering the most and are therefore demanding what is also known as “climate redress.”
This item, which was put on the agenda in Egypt on Sunday, is likely to create tension. At last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage finance body, instead backing three years of funding discussions.
The loss-and-damage discussions now on the COP27 agenda will not involve liability or mandatory compensation, but they are expected to lead to a final decision “no later than 2024,” Shoukry said.
“The inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity for the victims of climate disasters,” he said.