The negative climate trend will continue for the coming decades even with current mitigation efforts, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned.
“We can still affect this situation, but the negative trend in climate will continue until the 2060s anyhow,” Petteri Taalas told a news wire service in an interview.
“And if we are successful in climate mitigation, we could phase out this negative trend, but the melting of glaciers and sea level rise is a game we have practically lost that will continue for the coming even thousands of years,” Taalas said.
Underlining that it will be a long-term threat in many areas globally, especially for coastal areas and the Mediterranean region, he said the good news is that the world now has the technological means to be successful in climate mitigation.
Also, the countries began acting against climate change, he said, but argued that efforts of those nations which are going through an economic transition needed onboard as well.
Although the world has a good means to be successful in climate mitigation with the dropping prices of solar and wind energy and the growing amount of electric vehicles, the secretary-general said it is not likely to reach the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming below 1.5C.
“So far, we are not yet heading towards the Paris 1.5 degrees target, which is a challenge. We have to boost our climate mitigation efforts,” he said, adding that the 1.5C target would be the best for the welfare of human beings, for the biosphere, and also for the global economy as it is stated by the science community.
Taalas also spoke about the WMO’s annual report on the advance of climate change in 2022 published Friday.
The report found that from mountain peaks to ocean depths, climate change continued its advance in 2022, while droughts, floods and heatwaves affected communities on every continent and cost many billions of dollars, he said.
He added that Antarctic sea ice fell to its “lowest extent” on record and the melting of some European glaciers was literally “off the charts.”
“By the end of last year, we have again broken records in main greenhouse gas concentrations, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and in the last 10 years, they have been the warmest on record, and so far, we have reached 1.15 degrees warming,” he said.
CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE
