2014-2023 was the hottest decade so far, UN chief said – remains on earth are finished
In the year 2023, the heat broke all records. The World Meteorological Organization of the United Nations released its Annual Climate Status Report on Tuesday.
This confirmed initial data indicating that 2023 would be the hottest year so far. Whereas the time from 2014 to 2023 has been recorded as the hottest decade. Heat waves affected the oceans in these 10 years. Also, glaciers suffered record loss of snow.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report said that these figures have come at the end of the ‘warmest 10-year period’. United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres said that this report shows that our earth is on the verge of extinction.
Antonio Guterres said, “Our planet is showing signs of a crisis. Fossil fuel pollution charts show how much damage is being done to the climate. It is a warning of how fast changes are taking place on Earth.”
WMO said in its report that the average temperature near the Earth’s surface last year was 1.45 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Now it is dangerously close to the critical 1.5 degrees. “We have never been so close to the 1.5C lower limit of the Paris Agreement,” WMO chief Andrea Celeste Saulo warned in a statement. The Paris climate agreement was agreed by member states in 2015.
Red alert
WMO chief Andrea Celeste Saulo said, “This report should be seen as a red alert for the world.” “Heat records have once again been broken, and in some cases broken,” he said. Saulo stressed that climate change is about much more than temperatures.
Andrea Celeste Saulo said, “What we saw in 2023… increased heat waves, especially in the oceans. Glaciers melted and retreated. Antarctic ocean ice was damaged. Overall, all this is a cause for concern.” Last year, on an average day, a heat wave covered almost one-third of the global ocean.
WMO said that by the end of 2023, more than 90 percent of the oceans had experienced a heatwave at some point during the year. The WMO warned in its report that the continuing marine heatwave had a “negative impact on the marine ecosystem and its coral reefs.”
The report warned that major glaciers around the world have suffered the largest loss of ice since records began in 1950. Things have worsened especially in Western North America and Europe.
The report also said that Switzerland’s alpine glaciers have lost 10 percent of their remaining volume in the last two years. The headquarters of WMO is in Geneva, Switzerland. WMO said that the extent of Antarctic sea ice has also remained the lowest on record.
Sea level rise
In the report, the sudden rise in sea level has also been described as an alarm bell. The report said that by the end of winter the maximum extent of sea level was about 1 million square kilometers lower than the previous record year, which is equal to the combined size of France and Germany.
The agency stressed that global mean sea level rise over the past decade (2014-2023) has been more than double the rate of the first decade of satellite records. The report emphasized that climate change is having a huge impact on people around the world. This is giving rise to incidents of floods and droughts. The ecosystem is deteriorating due to this. Biodiversity is being damaged, due to which the problem of food insecurity is also increasing.
Silver Lining
However, the United Nations Weather and Climate Agency also pointed to a ray of hope amid this crisis. The agency said that during this period there has been an increase in renewable energy production, which is no less than a ray of hope. The report said that renewable energy capacity has increased by about 50 percent last year, mainly through solar, wind and hydropower, compared to 2022.
UN chief Guterres stressed that the world still has a chance to keep the Earth’s long-term temperature rise below the 1.5C limit and avoid the worst-case scenario of climate chaos. Renewable energy can be the way to this.