Climate Change Indicators Broke Records In 2021: UN
New York, May 18: The four key climate change indicators- greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification- set new records in 2021, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
It also warned of human activities causing planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean, and in the atmosphere, with harmful and long-lasting ramifications for sustainable development and ecosystems.
“Extreme weather – the day-to-day “face” of climate change – led to hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses and wreaked a heavy toll on human lives and well-being and triggered shocks for food and water security and displacement that have accentuated in 2022,” UN said.
The WMO State of the Global Climate in its 2021 report revealed that he past seven years were the warmest seven years on record with 2021 “only” one of the seven warmest because of a La Niña event at the start and end of the year. Referring to the WMO report, UN Secretary- General António Guterres in a video message said, ” Renewables are the only path to real energy security, stable power prices and sustainable employment opportunities. If we act together, the renewable energy transformation can be the peace project of the 21st century.”
The world must act in this decade to prevent ever worsening climate impacts and to keep temperature increase to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, he added.
WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas pointed out, “Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come. “Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented. Some glaciers have reached the point of no return and this will have long-term repercussions in a world in which more than 2 billion people already experience water stress.”
