Climate: warming is accelerating, warns a UN report

The years 2015-2022 are on track to be the 8 hottest years on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency.

Source AFP

In France, Lake Saint-Ferreol reached the lowest level ever reached in 2022, due to drought.
© ADRIEN NOWAK / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Published on 11/06/2022 at 1:29 p.m.

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L‘World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the situation is alarming. In a report that is more of a “Time.news of climate chaos”, the institution that depends on the United Nations (UN) indicates that, if the projections for this year are confirmed, the eight years from 2015 to 2022 will be the hottest on record. “As COP27 begins, our planet is sending a signal of distress,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented in a video message broadcast in Sharm el-Sheikh.

This “Time.news of climate chaos” shows “so clearly that change is happening at catastrophic speed, devastating lives on all continents”, he added, calling for response with “ambitious and credible actions” during the two weeks of this climate conference in Egypt.

With an estimated average temperature 1.15°C warmer than in the pre-industrial era, the year 2022 is expected to rank “only” in fifth or sixth place among these warmest years, due to the unusual influence , for a third consecutive year, of the La Niña ocean phenomenon, which leads to a drop in temperatures. “But that doesn’t reverse the long-term trend; it’s only a matter of time before there’s another warmer year,” insisted the WMO, the UN’s specialized agency.

READ ALSOWhy global warming will be more intense in France

Melting of glaciers

Proof if any of this trend, “the eight years from 2015 to 2022 will probably be the eight hottest years recorded”, estimated the Organization, which will publish its final assessment in 2023. The average temperature over the decade 2013 -2022 is estimated to be 1.14°C above that of the pre-industrial era, compared to 1.09°C over the period 2011-2020.

The Paris Climate Agreement aims to limit warming to well below 2°C, if possible 1.5°C. While science has proven that every tenth of a degree multiplies extreme weather events, this most ambitious goal of +1.5°C has become the “keep alive” goal. “The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are so high that the objective of 1.5°C (…) is barely within the realm of the possible”, commented on Sunday the boss of the OMM, Petteri Taalas.

“It is already too late for many glaciers and the melting will continue for hundreds or even thousands of years, with major consequences for water supplies,” he added. Thus, the glaciers of the Alps recorded in 2022 a record loss of ice mass, with a reduction in thickness of 3 to 4 meters, “much more than during the previous record in 2003”.

READ ALSOClimate: the disappearance of many glaciers is “already irreversible”

And the news is no better on the side of rising sea levels, mainly linked to the melting of the ice caps. The level of the oceans is also at a “record” in 2022, with a rise of 10 mm since January 2020, or 10% of the rise recorded since the start of satellite measurements almost 30 years ago. And the rate of elevation has doubled since 1993.

The planet has also been the victim this year of an avalanche of extreme events, from historic floods in Pakistan to repeated heat waves in Europe, including drought in the Horn of Africa. “We know that some of these disasters, floods and heat in Pakistan, floods and cyclones in southern Africa, Hurricane Ian, extreme heat waves and drought in Europe would not have been so severe without climate change,” commented Friederike Otto, a climatologist at Imperial College London.

“If ever there was a year to tear down and burn the blinders that prevent climate action, this is it,” added Dave Reay, from the University of Edinburgh.