"A foretaste of our future" UN issues highest climate change alert

The United Nations has declared the highest alert level in view of the dramatic effects of climate change. The report by the World Weather Organization shows that 2024 is on track to be the warmest year since records began.

The United Nations has once again declared the highest alert level to draw attention to the serious effects of climate change. This announcement was made as part of the presentation of the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) report on the state of the global climate in 2024.

The average global temperature from January to September this year was 1.54 degrees above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), as reported by the WMO at the World Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Experts assume that this trend will continue until the end of the year.

The EU climate change service Copernicus had already indicated that 2024 could be the warmest year since records began. The WMO bases its forecasts on data from Copernicus and five other institutes.

A record was already set in 2023 with a global average temperature of 1.48 degrees. The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is accelerating climate change, which is reflected in higher temperatures, rising sea levels, more frequent droughts, forest fires and extreme weather events.

Focus on the 1.5 degree target

Despite the alarming figures, the goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees has not yet been definitively missed. The WMO emphasizes that short-term natural influences, such as the El Niño phenomenon, which had a warming effect in 2023 and early 2024, must be taken into account.

The 1.5-degree target is measured over an average of at least two decades. According to the WMO experts, long-term average warming is currently around 1.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

A look into the future

"The extreme rainfall, flooding, hurricanes, deadly heat, relentless drought and devastating wildfires we have seen around the world this year are unfortunately a foretaste of our future," explained WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

The decade from 2015 to 2024 is the warmest since records began 175 years ago. The oceans reached record temperatures last year, and preliminary data suggests that temperatures will be similarly high this year. 90 percent of the Earth's energy is stored in the oceans, and warming is a change that is irreversible over centuries to millennia.

Sea levels rose by 4.77 millimetres per year between 2014 and 2023, more than twice as fast as between 1993 and 2002, and last year glaciers worldwide lost more ice than in any other year since measurements began in 1953.

Ocean warming, glacier melt and sea level rise are accelerating, while extreme weather events are causing devastating damage.

SDA