Geneva:
Climate change will lead to a trail of extreme weather and record heat in 2024, the United Nations said on Monday, urging the world to pull back from the “road to destruction”.
The coming year will be the hottest on record, the UN weather and climate agency said, capping a decade of unprecedented heat.
Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions grew to new record highs, trapping more heat for the future, the World Meteorological Organization said.
“Climate change is happening before our eyes almost every day in the form of an increase and impact of extreme weather events,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.
“This year we have seen record-breaking rainfall and flooding in so many countries, and devastating loss of life, leaving communities on every continent heartbroken.
‘Tropical cyclones have taken a terrible human and economic toll, most recently in the French overseas department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.
“The intense heat scorched dozens of countries, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) on several occasions. Forest fires caused devastation.”
The distribution of the climate
The 2015 Paris Climate Accords aimed to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – and to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.
In November, the WMO said the average surface air temperature in January and September was 1.54 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average measured between 1850 and 1900.
That puts 2024 comfortably on track to surpass 2023’s record.
Last year, temperatures were 1.45 degrees Celsius higher than before the Industrial Revolution, when humanity began burning large amounts of fossil fuels.
The WMO will publish the 2024 consolidated global temperature figure in January, with the full State of the Global Climate 2024 report to follow in March.
In his New Year’s message, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reflected on the record temperatures of the past decade.
“Today I can officially report that we have just endured a decade of deadly heat. The top ten warmest years on record have occurred in the past decade, including 2024,” he said.
‘This is a real-time climate analysis.
“We must leave this road and enter the ruins – and we have no time to lose,” he said.
‘By 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by drastically reducing emissions and supporting the transition to a sustainable future.
“It is essential and it is possible.”
2025 focus on frozen world
Saulo said she had repeatedly warned about the state of the climate in 2024.
“If we want a safer planet, we must act now,” she said.
Experts from 15 international organizations, 12 countries and several leading academics and NGOs met at WMO headquarters in Geneva from December 17 to 19 to work on a coordinated framework to tackle the growing threats of extreme heat.
The WMO will be 75 years old in 2025 and wants to celebrate this anniversary by focusing on the cryosphere: the frozen parts of the Earth, including sea ice, ice caps and frozen ground.
The WMO is also behind a major push for improved climate services and early warning systems.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)