UN: last eight years were warmest on record

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Thursday that the past eight years have been the warmest on record, despite the persistence of the La Niña phenomenon, which temporarily mitigated the effects of global warming.

Six key international data collected WMO point to the same reasons: “increasingly higher concentrations of greenhouse gases and stored heat,” the UN organization said in a statement, which confirms the conclusions of the European Copernicus climate change program released this week and the findings of the US weather service. Office (NOAA) and NASA also released this Thursday.

In 2022, the average global temperature was about 1.15ºC above pre-industrial levels WMO.

And last year was the eighth year in a row that the annual global temperature was at least one degree above the level observed between 1850 and 1900.

Of the past eight years, 2016 was the hottest, followed by 2019 and 2020.

temporary effect

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement called for limiting global warming by 1.5 °C, which, according to scientists, would slow down the impact changing of the climate.

But WMO On Thursday, he warned that “the likelihood of temporarily exceeding the 1.5°C limit increases with time.”

Thanks to the La Niña meteorological phenomenon, which has been trending to lower ocean temperatures and has persisted since 2020, heating it held back a bit.

The phenomenon may continue until March, the department said. WMOand then it will be followed by a neutral period, marked by the absence of La Niña and its opposite, El Niño.

Agency UN noted that the impact of La Niña on the planet as a whole will be “short-term” and “will not reverse the trend heating in the long term due to record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.”

In 2022, record temperatures were recorded in several areas: in the polar regions, as well as in large areas of the Middle East, China, Central Asia and North Africa.

For its part, Europe registered its second warmest year on record, with Spain, France, the UK and Italy surpassing their average temperature records, the Copernicus program pointed out.

catastrophes

In 2022, “we faced several dramatic meteorological disasters that resulted in too many casualties, destroyed livelihoods and undermined access and infrastructure in terms of health, food, energy and water,” the head condemned. WMOPetteri Taalas, in a statement.

The official recalled the deadly floods that have inundated a third of Pakistan and warned against a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Horn of Africa, which has been hit by drought for several seasons.

WMO it also revealed drier-than-usual conditions in Patagonia, South America, and southwestern North America.

“Since the 1980s, every decade has been warmer than the last,” and the average temperature for the decade from 2013 to 2022 was 1.14ºC above the pre-industrial standard, compared to 1.09ºC from 2011 to 2020, according to a UN Panel of Experts . Experts in Changing of the climate (IPCC).

Faced with increasingly extreme weather events, Taalas insisted on the need to “strengthen preparations”.

In this sense, UN Secretary General António Guterres announced at COP27 a plan of more than $3 billion to have the whole world covered by early warning systems by 2027.

Currently, only half of the 193 member countries have this type of system.

(According to AFP)

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