A new multi-agency report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has highlighted the enormous gap between aspirations and reality, describing current extreme changes in weather patterns as heading in the wrong direction.
Following a temporary drop due to lockdowns, fossil fuel emission rates are now determined to be higher than pre-pandemic levels.
According to the reports, the ambition of emissions reduction pledges for 2030 must be seven times higher to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 °C goal.
“Without much more ambitious action, the physical and socioeconomic impacts of climate change will be increasingly devastating,” it warns.
The report, which will be released in Geneva on September 13, 2022, will cover greenhouse gases, global temperatures, climate predictions and tipping points, urban climate change, extreme weather impacts, and early warnings.
According to the report, United in Science, greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise to record highs.
“The past seven years were the warmest on record. There is a 48% chance that, during at least one year in the next 5 years, the annual mean temperature will temporarily be 1.5°C higher than 1850-1900 average. As global warming increases, “tipping points” in the climate system can not be ruled out,” it states.
It also states that cities that house billions of people and are responsible for up to 70% of human-caused emissions will face increasing socioeconomic impacts, with the most vulnerable populations bearing the brunt of the consequences, citing examples of extreme weather in various parts of the world this year.
It also says that, cities that host billions of people and are responsible for up to 70% of human-caused emissions will face increasing socio-economic impacts and the most vulnerable populations will suffer most, citing examples of extreme weather in different parts of the world this year.
“Floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires are going from bad to worse, breaking records with alarming frequency. Heatwaves in Europe. Colossal floods in Pakistan.
“Prolonged and severe droughts in China, the Horn of Africa and the United States. There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“This year’s United in Science report shows climate impacts heading into uncharted territory of destruction. Yet each year we double-down on this fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get rapidly worse,” Mr Guterres said in a video message.
“Climate science is increasingly able to show that many of the extreme weather events that we are experiencing have become more likely and more intense due to human-induced climate change. We have seen this repeatedly this year, with tragic effect.
“It is more important than ever that we scale up action on early warning systems to build resilience to current and future climate risks in vulnerable communities. That is why WMO is spearheading a drive to ensure Early Warnings for All in the next five years,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
United in Science provides an overview of the most recent scientific findings concerning climate change, its effects, and responses.
According to the report, the science is clear: immediate action is required to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. It incorporates contributions from the World Meteorological Organization (and its Global Atmosphere Watch and World Weather Research Programmes); the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the World Climate Research Programme, the Global Carbon Project, the United Kingdom Met Office, and the Urban Climate Change Research Network. It includes relevant headline statements from the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) levels in the atmosphere continue to rise. The temporary reduction in CO2 emissions during the pandemic in 2020 had little effect on the increase in atmospheric concentrations (what remains in the atmosphere after CO2 is absorbed by the ocean and biosphere).
Data from all global locations, including the flagship observatories at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and Cape Grim in Tasmania, Australia, show that CO2 levels continued to rise in 2021 and 2022. CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa reached 420.99 ppm in May 2022 (419.13 ppm in 2021) and 413.37 ppm (411.25 ppm in May 2021).
After falling by 5.4% in 2020 due to widespread lockdowns, global fossil CO2 emissions in 2021 will return to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. According to preliminary data, global CO2 emissions in 2022 (January to May) are 1.2% higher than in 2019, owing to increases in the United States, India, and most European countries.
Despite a significant fluctuation in global emissions over the last two and a half years, fossil CO2 emissions fell significantly in 23 countries (many European countries, Japan, Mexico, and the United States) between 2010 and 2019.
A quarter of GHG emissions from land-use change are associated with food trade between countries, with land clearing for agriculture, including grazing, accounting for more than three quarters.
