BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Last year was the world’s joint-fifth warmest year on record and the past nine years were the ninth warmest since the start of the industry, as climate change continues to pick up temperature and make the climate more dangerous, US scientists said. on Thursday.
Last year tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest year since records began in 1880, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA said.
That’s despite the presence of the La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which lowers global temperatures slightly.
Global temperatures are now 1.1C to 1.2C higher than pre-industrial levels.
The NOAA-NASA analysis said that temperatures are increasing by more than 0.2C per year, putting the world on track to exceed the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5C to avoid the worst consequences.
“At the rate we’re going, it won’t take more than 20 years to get us to that. And the only way we’re not going to do that is if we stop using greenhouse gases. in the air.” Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said.
Schmidt said he expects 2023 to be slightly warmer than 2022, due to a weaker La Nina winter.
“Global temperatures will be higher in 10 years from now,” said ETH Zurich climate scientist Sonia Seneviratne, adding that unless countries stop burning CO2 fossil fuels will go in the face of rising.
FULL OF HORROR
A changing climate has fueled extreme weather across the globe in 2022. Europe suffered its worst summer on record, while in Pakistan floods killed 1,700 people and damaged infrastructure, droughts devastated fields in Uganda and forest fires destroyed the Mediterranean country.
Despite the majority of the world’s emitters pledging to eventually reduce their emissions to net zero, global CO2 emissions continue to rise.
Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere last year reached levels not seen on Earth for 3 million years, Schmidt said.
At this year’s COP28 climate conference, countries will review their progress towards the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C target – and the rapid emissions reductions required to meet it.
COP28 host United Arab Emirates on Thursday appointed the head of its state oil company to chair the conference, raising concerns among campaigners and scientists about the influence of the oil industry in the negotiations.
The NOAA-NASA findings are in line with various studies from European Union scientists, who this week ranked 2022 as the fifth hottest year on record.
Statement by Kate Abnett; Editing by Alex Richardson
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