2022 one of the warmest years on record, pace of rise in global sea level has doubled: UN climate report

The year 2022 was the fifth or sixth warmest year on record with the mean global temperature 1.15 degrees Celsius above.

The pre-industrial average, despite the rare third year of La Nina—a natural temporary cooling of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather conditions worldwide.

In fact, the past eight years have been the hottest eight years on record globally, said a 55-page report ‘State of Global Climate 2022’ released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Friday, a day ahead of Earth Day.

Analysing the weather data for months, the report said killer floods, droughts and heat waves hit around the world, costing many billions of dollars. Global ocean heat and acidity levels hit record highs and Antarctic sea ice and European Alps glaciers reached record low amounts.

“In 2022, continuous drought in East Africa, record-breaking rainfall in Pakistan and record-breaking heat waves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

China’s heat wave was its longest and most extensive in that country’s record with its summer not just hottest on record but smashing the old record by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit), said WMO’s weather report.

Africa’s drought displaced more than 1.7 million people in Somalia and Ethiopia, while Pakistan’s devastating flooding — which put one-third of the nation under water at one point — displaced about 8 million people, the report said.

“Unfortunately these negative trends in weather patterns and all of these parameters may continue until the 2060s” despite efforts to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases because of the pollution already spewed, Taalas said. “We have already lost this melting of this glaciers game and sea level rise game. So that’s bad news.”

WHAT ARE THE KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT?

Sea ice in Antarctica receded to record lows last June and July. Oceans were the warmest on record, with around 58% of their surfaces experiencing a marine heatwave.

The key glaciers that scientists use as a health check for the world shrank by more than 1.3 meters (51 inches) in just one year and for the first time in history, no snow survived the summer melt season on Switzerland’s glaciers.

Extreme glacier melt and record ocean heat levels–which cause water to expand–contributed to an average rise in sea levels of 4.62mm a year between 2013-2022. That is about double the pace of the first decade on record, 1993-2002, leading to a total increase of over 10cm since the early 1990s.

Global sea levels are rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements in 1993-2002 and hit a new record high last year.

Oceans can rise another half a meter to a meter (20 to 39 inches) by the end of the century as more ice melts from ice sheets and glaciers and warmer water expands.

WAY FORWARD
Taalas said such extreme weather patterns would continue into the 2060s no matter what steps are taken to reduce emissions. But he said there was still a chance to turn things around afterwards.

“The good news would be that we would be able to phase out this negative trend and even reach the 1.5 degrees (Celsius) limit,” he said, noting more ambitious climate plans from G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) that could enable the world to meet the 2015 Paris temperature target.

Meanwhile, climate scientists have warned that the world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of warming El Niño conditions.