• The report, “State of the Global Climate,” reveals that the world’s efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate.
• The WMO’s Secretary-General, Celeste Saulo, emphasized the urgency of limiting global warming.
• The climate crisis is a defining challenge for humanity, combined with a crisis of inequality.

The UN weather agency is issuing a “red alert” about global warming, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures, and melting of glaciers and sea ice. It warns that the world’s efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate.

In a “State of the Global Climate” report released on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization escalated concerns that a much-vaunted climate goal is increasingly in jeopardy: the goal that the world can unite to limit planetary warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels.

“Never have we been so close – albeit temporarily at the moment – to the 1.5° C lower limit of the Paris agreement on climate change,” said Celeste Saulo, the agency’s secretary-general. “The WMO community is sounding the red alert to the world.”

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Service, the 12 months from March 2023 to February 2024 surpassed the 1.5-degree limit, averaging 1.56 C (2.81 F) higher. It reported that the calendar year 2023 fell just below 1.5 C at 1.48 C (2.66 F), but a record hot start to this year exceeded that level for the 12-month average.

“Earth’s issuing a distress call,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The latest State of the Global Climate report shows a planet on the brink. Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.”

The latest WMO findings present a particularly stark picture when compiled in a single report. In 2023, heat wave conditions were experienced at least once in over 90 percent of ocean waters. Glaciers monitored since 1950 recorded the highest ice loss on record. Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest level ever.

Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, who wasn’t involved in the report, expressed concern, stating, “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.”

Saulo referred to the climate crisis as “the defining challenge that humanity faces” and highlighted its combination with a crisis of inequality, as evidenced by growing food insecurity and migration.

WMO stated that the impact of heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires, and tropical cyclones, worsened by climate change, affected lives and livelihoods on every continent in 2023.

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