SHARM EL-SHEIKH: The past eight years were on track to be the warmest on record, a UN agency said in a report published on the opening day of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said ambitions to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial averages are now “barely within reach” as greenhouse gases continue to pour into the atmosphere.
It estimated that the global mean temperature in 2022 is around 1.15°C above levels from 1850 to 1900.
The stark observations cast a shadow over optimism that last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, “kept 1.5°C alive”.
The WMO said “the telltale signs and impacts of climate change are becoming more dramatic”, with warming accelerating irreversible glacier melting, which threatens water security and raises sea levels.
It said that the past two and a half years alone account for 10% of the overall rise in sea level since satellite measurements started nearly three decades ago.
WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said in a statement that while sea level rise is currently measured in “millimetres per year”, this would add up to “0.5m to 1m” per century.
“That is a long-term and major threat to many millions of coastal dwellers and low-lying states.”
The report also found that the concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide again reached new highs in 2021.
Methane, which has gained more attention recently as a potent greenhouse gas, experienced its highest annual increase in concentration so far.
“The greater the warming, the worse the impacts,” Taalas said.
Extreme weather events have battered the globe this year, from flooding in Pakistan to droughts in Africa and heatwaves across Europe and China.
Indeed, a key battle at COP27 is set to be the long-standing controversy about whether rich industrialised countries, in addition to cutting emissions, should offer reparations to poorer nations for the historical damage they have caused.
Delegates yesterday placed the topic on the agenda for the first time since climate talks began decades ago.