the last eight years on track to become the hottest on record

Temperature anomalies for the period January-September 2022 compared to the period 1981-2010, according to the World Meteorological Organization. OMM

It is a report that confirms what everyone has seen and felt throughout this endless year of climatic disasters. Extreme heat waves, historic droughts, devastating floods and devastating fires have swept the planet relentlessly, affecting millions of people and causing billions of dollars in economic losses, summarizes the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in its interim report on the state of the climate in 2022 – which is based on the first nine months of the year and whose data will be confirmed in January. The UN body concludes that the last eight years are on the way to becoming the hottest on record.

The year 2022 will probably not be ” what “ the fifth or sixth warmest year on record. Global temperatures have remained relatively « basses » for two years, notes the institution, due to a temporary cooling due to the La Niña phenomenon – a thermal anomaly of the surface waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific that decreases the global temperature. This phenomenon continued for three consecutive years, which is rare. “However, this situation does not indicate that the long-term trend is reversing. It’s only a matter of time before another record year arrives.”warns the WMO.

This report is published at the opening of the 27^e United Nations climate conference (COP27), which is being held until November 18 in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt). Countries will have the difficult task of making progress in the fight against climate change or, failing that, of preventing it from showing setbacks, in a context of multiple crises (energy, food, debt) and war. in Ukraine. There is urgency: the promises of the States, totally insufficient, put the planet on a trajectory of warming of 2.5 ° C at the end of the century, according to the UN. This feverish rise could even be worse, given that the climate objectives have not yet been met.

Difference in average annual temperature on a global scale compared to the pre-industrial period (1850-1900). Data for 2022 refer to the period from January to September. OMM

“Time.news of Climate Chaos”

“Our planet is sending a distress signal”reacts Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations. This report “is a Time.news of climate chaos. It shows that change is happening with catastrophic speed, devastating lives and livelihoods on every continent”he adds, calling in particular for the establishment of early warning systems in all countries within five years.

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