‘Red Alert’ issued by UN Weather Agency on Climate Crisis

Record metrics for heat and proportional ice melts in 2023 have left the UN Weather Agency deeply concerned with the manner in which the climate crisis is worsening, thus prompting the organisation to issue a ‘Red Alert’ for global warming.

The UN Weather Agency highlighted the fact that 2023 saw record breaking levels of land and water temperatures, greenhouse gases and melting of glaciers and sea ice. This has been perceived as a sign that the current approach and degree of efforts being put into countering global warming are not up to the required standards, which endangers the future of the planet.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2024 is slated to be another record-breaking year, which is quite disconcerting to most astute observers. The organisation released a report on Tuesday, aptly titled the “State of the Global Climate” report, in which it has stated that the climate goals that have been set are in danger of going unfulfilled.

It has also said that to limit planetary warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, the world must come together for a collaborative and concerted effort which allows all parties to meet this need by providing meaningful avenues to pursue.

Celeste Saulo, the agency’s Secretary-General, stated the following, “Never have we been so close – albeit on a temporary basis at the moment – to the 1.5° C lower limit of the Paris agreement on climate change. The WMO community is sounding the red alert to the world.”

Between March 2023 to February 2024, temperatures exceeded the 1.5-degree limit, averaging 1.56 C (2.81 F) higher, as stated by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his opinion on the matter, stating, “Earth’s issuing a distress call. The latest State of the Global Climate report shows a planet on the brink. Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.”

WMO’s chief of climate monitoring, Omar Baddour, highlighted the effects of the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean on the developing climate patterns around the world.
With that in mind he said, “So we cannot say definitively about 2024 is going to be the warmest year. But what I would say: There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023, but let’s wait and see, so the records are still being broken.”

WMO’s latest revelations have sent shock waves around the world. the fact that 90% of ocean waters experienced heat waves in 2023, has become a great example of the threat presented by rising global temperatures.

Antarctic sea ice retreated to its lowest level since records are being kept, while glaciers lost the most ice they have since 1950 when those records began.

Jonathan Overpeck, the Dean of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, who spoke as an independent party, stated the following, “Topping all the bad news, what worries me the most is that the planet is now in a meltdown phase — literally and figuratively given the warming and mass loss from our polar ice sheets.”

Heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones have had a drastic effect on global temperatures and the effects of the same have been felt in every part of the world, regardless of how isolated it might be, according to the WMO.

Kathy Jacobs, another expert who remains independent of the WMO report and is a reputed climate scientist at the University of Arizona, stated the following, “This list of record-smashing events is truly distressing, though not a surprise given the steady drumbeat of extreme events over the past year.”

“The full cost of climate-change-accelerated events across sectors and regions has never been calculated in a meaningful way, but the cost to biodiversity and to the quality of life of future generations is incalculable.”

Having said that, the UN Agency does see a glimmer of hope in the fact that the capacity for generating renewable energy from wind, solar and waterpower has increased exponentially, by a measure of 50 per cent from 2022 — to a total of 510 gigawatts.

Malte Meinshausen, a professor of climate science at the University of Melbourne in Australia, stated the following, “The target of 1.5C degree warming still holds, just like a speed limit on the highway still holds even if we temporarily exceed it. What is more urgent than ever is to grasp the economic opportunities that arise due to the low-cost renewables at our disposal, to decarbonise the electricity sector, and electrify other sectors.”

“We need to step on the brakes of ever-increasing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. And hopeful signs are there, that GHG emissions are about to peak.”