The annual United Nations climate summit, known as COP27, began this Sunday in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh. Negotiators from the nearly 200 countries attending the meeting have begun reminding what is happening to the planet and humanity. “The effects of climate change are intensifying,” warns the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This UN-affiliated organization warns that the global average temperature in 2022 will be 1.15 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1990), i.e. before humans began making massive use of fossil fuels released during combustion Greenhouse gases that overheat the planet. “Sea level rise is accelerating, European glaciers are melting at record rates and extreme weather events are wreaking havoc,” warns the WMO, which presented a preview of the 2022 climate status summary this Sunday.
This panel claims that the past eight years (2015-2022) have probably been the eight warmest years on record. Exactly in 2015, at the summit in the French capital, the Paris Agreement on climate change was signed. This pact sets the goal that warming should not exceed 2 degrees Celsius and, if possible, 1.5 degrees Celsius, always based on pre-industrial levels. But the planet is warming by 1.1 degrees and the concentration of the main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere continues to set records every year. This was the case in 2021 and will continue to be so this year, as “according to key monitoring stations, atmospheric levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to rise in 2022.”
The effects of climate change are not only reflected in the average rise in temperature. They are also “felt more frequently and more clearly during extreme events such as heavy rain and snow, drought, heat waves, cold snaps and storms, including tropical storms and hurricanes”. The WMO briefly summarizes the most adverse weather events of this year 2022, introducing them with the heatwaves and floods that have hit Asia, especially India and especially Pakistan. “The heat led to a drop in crop yields. This, along with India’s wheat export ban and rice export restrictions, threatens international food markets and poses risks for countries already facing shortages of staple foods.
At the climate summit that began this Sunday, the issue of climate change-related losses and damage in the most vulnerable countries is expected to feature prominently on the negotiating agenda. The poorest and warming-prone nations want the groundwork laid for the creation of a compensation mechanism or fund. “If there is one issue where there should be significant progress at this COP, it is loss and damage,” says Laura Juliana Arciniegas, climate and environmental diplomacy expert. “The increasing impact of climate change in developing countries and the associated losses, adding to the current economic crisis, make it more urgent than ever to specify the support that the climate regime will provide, including through a specific financial mechanism. Key countries in this discussion, like the United States, have signaled their intention to work together and explore options to make progress at this COP that they could facilitate,” he adds.
During the opening plenary session, COP27 President Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed the importance of developed countries meeting their climate finance commitments to the most vulnerable nations. And she has confirmed that there will be a special negotiating group on losses and damages at this summit.
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For many years, the discussion about compensation for loss and damage – irreversible impacts such as islands disappearing due to sea level rise or economic losses due to extreme weather events – has been postponed. However, it is now expected to get a good boost at this COP27.
Although the summit, which will last two weeks, started this Sunday, the informal inauguration will not take place until Monday. Around 125 heads of state and government will attend the opening. The EU’s key leaders will be there – including Pedro Sánchez – and, although he will not be present at the inauguration, Joe Biden, President of the United States, will also be visiting Sharm el Sheikh later in the week. However, the leaders of China, India and Russia are not expected to attend in person. This does not mean that these countries will not attend the summit, as their ministers and delegates will take part in the negotiations.
“Change is happening at catastrophic speed, devastating lives and livelihoods on all continents,” warned António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, this Sunday during the presentation of the WMO report. The document devotes a chapter to the floods in Pakistan this summer. “Preliminary satellite data showed that 75,000 square kilometers, about 9% of Pakistan’s area, was flooded sometime during August 28.” Food prices rose 29%; and 7.9 million people were displaced from their homes. “The latest report on the state of the global climate is a chronicle of climate chaos,” Guterres added.
In East Africa, rainfall has been below average for four consecutive rainy seasons – something that had not happened in the past 40 years – and “everything indicates that the current season could also be dry,” says the WMO. This situation triggers hunger: “As a result of the ongoing drought and other complicating factors, an estimated 18.4 to 19.3 million people were experiencing a food crisis or facing more acute food insecurity prior to June 2022.”
indicators
Aside from extreme events, the WMO reviews some of the indicators of global warming, like rising sea levels or melting European glaciers. For example, the rate at which sea levels are rising has doubled since 1993. And “10% of the global increase since satellite measurements began almost 30 years ago is concentrated in the last two and a half years”.
On the other hand, the melting of the glaciers in the European Alps “broke records in 2022”. “Average thickness losses of between three and more than four meters have been measured throughout the Alps, values that are significantly higher than in 2003, the last year in which the melting was more pronounced.” According to the WMO, the Swiss glaciers will have lost an estimated 6% between 2021 and 2022. lost their ice volume.
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