The world is the hottest it’s been since the Paris agreement, confirms World Meteorological Organization’s report

The last consecutive eight years, 2015-2022, were the eight warmest years on record globally, according to the State of the Global Climate 2022 Report (1), which released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Friday, the 21^st of April, in Geneva, just ahead of World Earth Day on 22 April 2023. Incidentally the Paris Agreement (3), which serves as the fulcrum for ongoing global negotiations on climate change, was inked in 2015.

The report pointed out that the situation could have been far worse if the La Niña weather event had not occurred in the past three years, which has a cooling effect on the weather system. In response to the report, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, vindicated the need to undertake massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience (2), particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis.

The Paris Agreement has not been able to equitably phase-out fossil fuels that are predominantly responsible for the climate crisis, underlining that the world needs a new global framework in the form of a Fossil Fuel Treaty to complement the 2015 climate agreement

Climate experts have pointed out that the finding of the latest WMO report, rather the outcomes of it, vindicate what civil society has been complaining about all along—that most industrialised and emissions-belching countries have not been walking the talk with their climate commitments and carrying out their responsibilities.

It is evident that the Paris Agreement has not been able to equitably phase-out fossil fuels that are predominantly responsible for the climate crisis, underlining that the world needs a new global framework in the form of a Fossil Fuel Treaty to complement the 2015 climate agreement to drive the green transition through international cooperation and solidarity.

Harjeet Singh, head of Global Political Strategy of Climate Action Network International who recently participated in the Loss and Damage UN transitional committee meeting, reasoned that the  current climate impacts are a result of historical greenhouse gas emissions from the industrialised nations and they must phase-out fossil fuels faster, and support developing nations through adequate finance for ambitious climate actions.

Climate records tumbled 

Apart from record  mercury rise, several other climate records have tumbled in 2022 shows the report:

• Global mean temperature rising: The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15 degree celsius, ranging from 1.02 to1.28 degree celsius above the 1850–1900 average—the highest on record for the past eight years. The pre industrialisation era is considered as a benchmark as there was no significant anthropogenic emission at that time.

• Record melting of Antarctic ice: Sea ice in Antarctica dropped to an all-time low of 1.92 million sq km on 25 February 2022, the lowest level on record and almost 1 million sq km below the mean of the last three decades till 2020.

• Greenhouse gases surged: The levels of the three greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued to increase in 2022 over the already historically high levels reached in the previous year.

• Sea level rise doubled: Global mean sea level continued to rise in 2022. It has doubled from 2.27 mm to 4.62 mm in between the first decade of the satellite record (1993–2002) and the latest (2013–2022). Ocean heat content, which measures this gain in energy, reached a new observed record.

• Record thinning of glaciers:Glaciers, for which long term observational data are available, were found to have thinned over 1.3 meters between October 2021 and October 2022. The cumulative thickness loss since 1970 amounts to almost 30 m.

• About three–fifth of oceans had marine heatwaves in 2022: Despite continuing La Niña conditions, 58 percent of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave during 2022.

• Heatwaves killed 15,000 in Europe: Record-breaking heatwaves affected Europe during the summer, with excess deaths associated with the heat in Europe exceeding 15,000 across Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Portugal.

• 1600 suffered deaths from weather extremes in India: India suffered from significant flooding at various stages during the monsoon, particularly in the north-east in June, with over 700 deaths reported from flooding and landslides, and a further 900 from lightning.

Climate concern gets bigger as other crises piggyback

The heightening climatic concerns have been accepted by WMO as, according to WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Tallas, the WMO annual report has once again brought focus on how climate change continued to increase its ambit in 2022 (2), right from mountain peaks to ocean depths. Droughts, floods, and heatwaves affected communities on every continent including India and cost the world economy many billions of dollars, said the report exploring the economic angle of the climatic damages. According to the report, Pakistan alone has lost US $30 billion for its flood-related impact while Australia lost US$ 4 billion.

The report also explained how hazardous climatic impacts and extreme weather events drove new population displacement and worsened conditions for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement at the beginning of 2022.

Incidentally, all does not seem to be lost as the WMO assessment recognised the, “collaboration amongst UN agencies,” which has proven to be very effective in addressing humanitarian impacts induced by extreme weather and climate events, especially in reducing associated mortality and economic losses.

The report also highlighted the combined impact of climatic drivers with pandemic pressure as well as conflicts across the world, as it pointed out that rising undernourishment has been exacerbated by the compounded effects of hydrometeorological hazards and COVID-19, as well as of protracted conflicts and violence.

The report also explained how hazardous climatic impacts and extreme weather events drove new population displacement and worsened conditions for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement at the beginning of 2022.

The climate analysts emphasised that while the world has, “the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions,” it probably lacks in pace of implementation; and they pointed out that unless accelerated climate action—with deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree celsius—is undertaken, the world will be in one-way track towards destruction.

Jayanta Basu is an environment correspondent of The Telegraph, ABP; Editor ,The Plural Environment News Media; visiting  faculty, Calcutta University; and South Asian Editor, The Climate TV Channel, Canada.

• Climate, Food and Environment
• Climate Change
• European Union
• India
• climate change
• droughts
• economic damages
• Global Climate
• heatwaves
• Paris Agreement
• WMO

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