UN Warns That 2024 Has A High Probability To Break Record Of Hot Year

The United Nations' weather agency said that there is a "high probability" that 2024 will be another record-hot year and warned that the world's efforts to reverse the trend have been insufficient.

Red Alert

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record by a significant margin.

In a climate report, it was discovered that records were "once again broken and, in some cases, smashed" for key indicators such as greenhouse gas pollution, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover, and glacier retreat.

Andrea Celeste Saulo, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization, stated that the organization is now "sounding the red alert to the world."

The report found temperatures near the earth's surface were 1.45 degrees Celsius higher last year than they were in the late 1800s, when humanity began to harm nature on an industrial scale by burning vast amounts of coal, oil, and gas.

The error margin of 0.12 degrees Celsius in the temperature estimate is high enough to suggest that the globe has already warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

However, scientists warn that this does not imply that world leaders have broken their vow in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to that level by the end of the century, because global warming is measured using a 30-year average rather than a single year's increase.

Violent Weather Extremes

The report documented violent weather extremes, notably heat, throughout all inhabited continents. Rapid attribution studies have revealed that climate change has exacerbated or increased the likelihood of certain weather events.

Climate scientists are divided on whether the severe temperatures witnessed at the start of 2024 indicate an unforeseen acceleration of the global problem.

Some indicators, like sea surface temperatures, have been unusually high, even accounting for the return of the ocean-warming weather pattern El Niño. Other weather phenomena have reached exceptional levels earlier than expected.

"In terms of temperatures, it can be stated that a year like 2023, although extreme, is already possible in climate simulations of the current human-heated climate. But not all extreme weather events can be simulated with the current climate models," said Andreas Fink, a meteorologist at Karlsruhe Institute for Technology.

The WMO found "a glimmer of hope" in the expansion of renewable energy.

According to research, the amount of renewable capacity added in 2023 was about 50% higher than the previous year, making it the greatest rate seen in the last two decades.

The study suggests that marine heatwaves will scorch one-third of the world's ocean on an average day in 2023, wreaking havoc on crucial ecosystems and food chains. By the end of the year, only 10% of the ocean had avoided heatwaves.

Climate change exacerbated extreme weather occurrences, which left people hungry and compelled them to flee their homes, even if it was not the primary cause of their suffering.

The number of people who are "acutely" food insecure has more than doubled since 2019, reaching 333 million by 2023, with the majority of them living in Africa and South Asia.