Of . – 11.07.2022 05:00 (act 11.7.2022 11:48)
The WMO report warns: The global climate is getting hotter and more extreme. ©APA/ROBERT JAEGER (icon report)
Global warming is making extreme weather events more common. The 1.5 degree target, necessary to avoid hitting dangerous tipping points, is also hardly within reach.
The World Climate Organization (WMO) gave a preliminary overview of the state of the world’s climate in a report at the start of the UN COP27 world climate conference in Egypt.
Global warming is pushing temperatures to record levels
According to the assessment, the last eight years are the hottest on record. The global average temperature was recently estimated to be about 1.15 degrees above the pre-industrial average. The La Niña weather phenomenon has lowered temperatures a bit, meaning 2022 will only be included in the statistics as the fifth or sixth warmest year since records began, according to the report – but it’s only a matter of time before a new one. record year heat will be measured. The La Niña weather phenomenon, which occurs every few years, lowers the average global temperature because the upper layers of water in the tropical eastern Pacific are unusually cold.
Extreme weather events caused by global warming cause high costs
Heat waves, droughts and floods have affected millions of people this year and cost billions. By mid-year, up to 19.3 million people were affected by insecure or inadequate access to food, among other things due to extremely long-lasting droughts in East Africa. Floods in Pakistan have killed at least 1,700 people and displaced nearly eight million people from their homes.
Global South most affected by extreme weather
In particular, people in the Global South who are least responsible for climate change suffer the most, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said, according to the report. But other regions have also been rocked by extremes this year – for example, Europe or southern China by massive heat waves and also extreme droughts, which nearly dried up major rivers.
Many glaciers have already been lost due to global warming
The melting of glaciers has accelerated enormously this year. Average losses of three to four meters of ice thickness were measured in the Alps, significantly more than in the previous record year of 2003. The Greenland ice sheet has melted for the 26th year in a row, and in August 2021, rain instead of snow fell for the first time at the highest point of the ice sheet.
In Switzerland, the volume of glaciers has declined by more than a third in the last twenty years. “For many glaciers, it is already too late and the melting will continue for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, with huge implications for water supplies,” Taalas said.
Global warming is causing sea levels to rise to new records
The rate of sea level rise has doubled since 1993. Since January 2020, sea level has risen by nearly 10 millimeters to a new record. The increase in the last two and a half years accounts for ten percent of the total increase in the last nearly 30 years, in which this was observed through satellite measurements. This acceleration is mainly due to melting ice. This is a huge threat to coastal regions and low-lying states.
1.5 degree target “barely within reach”
The concentration of the most important greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) – hit a new record last year, and the rise in methane was even greater than ever before. The concentration of all three gases in the atmosphere continued to increase in the current year. “We have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the target of 1.5 degrees is hardly within reach,” said WMO Secretary-General Taalas. The greater the global warming, the worse the effects.
According to climate researchers, global warming must be stopped by 1.5 degrees to avoid passing dangerous tipping points and avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. The international community has agreed to this goal, but is far from doing enough to implement it politically.