The fight against Climate Change continues

WMO REPORT

New report warns that without much more ambitious action, the consequences of climate change will become increasingly devastating.

There is a large gap between global aspirations to combat climate change and real data. This is the conclusion reached by the latest edition of the United for Science report, prepared by different climate agencies and coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The study is overwhelming: the data collected in recent months show that global actions are insufficient and that, if more ambitious measures are not proposed, the impacts of climate change will be increasingly devastating for the planet as a whole.

According to the report, the data are beginning to be catastrophic: greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise and reach new highs, the last seven years have been the warmest on record, extreme weather will be increasingly frequent… Below, we explain the keys to the report.

Emission of polluting gases

Greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise and are reaching peak levels. During the confinement caused by the pandemic, there was a temporary decrease in these polluting gases; However, fossil fuel emission rates currently exceed pre-pandemic levels.

According to the report, the data shows that global CO2 emissions in 2022 (January to May) exceed by 1.2% the levels recorded during the same period in 2019.

The WMO says the international community must set targets up to seven times higher in order to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC set in the Paris Agreement. In addition, it warns that global warming caused by these gases can cause points of no return in the fight against climate change.

Warm temperatures

The last seven years (2015-2021) have been the warmest years on record. This summer, Europe and much of the world has been the protagonist of one of the biggest heat waves of recent times. In countries like the United Kingdom, where they are not used to high temperatures, they reached 40.2 degrees in July.

It should be remembered that the Paris Agreement aims to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the increase in global temperature this century to 2ºC and strive to limit this increase to even 1.5ºC.

However, the report concludes that warm temperatures will become increasingly high and frequent in the coming years. Specifically, the average annual global temperature for each year between 2022 and 2026 is projected to be between 1.1 °C and 1.7 °C higher than those of pre-industrial levels (1850-1900).

Extreme weather events

The number of weather, climate and water-related disasters has increased fivefold in the past 50 years, causing $202 million in daily losses, according to the report.

Extreme weather events have lasting socio-economic consequences, especially in the most vulnerable communities, which are also often the least equipped to respond, recover and adapt.

This is the case in countries such as Pakistan, where torrential rains have not ceased since June and floods have left a third of the country under water. In other parts of the world, such as Spain or the United States, there has been a summer starring fires, a phenomenon where climate change also has an impact.

Health problems and vulnerable groups

Cities, home to more than half of the world’s population, generate up to 70% of human-caused emissions. As a result, the people who live in these spaces are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather phenomena, accelerated sea rise or high temperatures.

According to the report, by the 2050s, more than 1.6 billion people living in more than 970 cities will be regularly exposed to average temperatures reaching at least 35ºC.

These high temperatures can pose a health risk to humans, who may suffer heat stroke more frequently. Children and the elderly are some of the most vulnerable groups to these heat strokes.

Climate change is a reality and now all that remains is to act. The report concludes that the international community must take ambitious measures not only to mitigate polluting emissions, but also to adapt to situations caused by climate change. It will be especially important to act in developing areas, which have fewer adaptation resources.

Source: The Vanguard