Notably, the WMO report says from 2014-2023, global mean sea level rose at a rate of 4.77 mm per year, more than double the rate between 1993 and 2002. The El Niño effect meant it grew even more rapidly in 2023. Preliminary 2024 data shows that, with the decline of El Niño, it has fallen back to levels consistent with the rising trend from 2014 to 2022. The sheer pace of climate change in a single generation, turbocharged by ever-increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, is unprecedented. 2015-2024 will be the warmest ten years on record. “Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.However, not pushing the panic button yet, the WMO chief said: “Recorded global temperature anomalies at daily, monthly and annual timescales are prone to large variations, partly because of natural phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña. They should not be equated to the long-term temperature goal set in the Paris Agreement, which refers to global temperature levels sustained as an average over decades,” she said.”… it is essential to recognise that every fraction of a degree of warming matters. Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5°C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks,” said Celeste Saulo.”The record-breaking rainfall and flooding, rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, deadly heat, relentless drought, and raging wildfires that we have seen in different parts of the world this year are unfortunately our new reality and a foretaste of our future,” she said.
Source link
