Cop27, the world leaders arrive. Financing for climate damage is on the agenda. The last 8 years the hottest on record

The increase in temperatures is due to the increase in concentrations of the main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen dioxide). These gases reached record levels in 2021, and continue to rise in 2022. The heat melts polar ice caps and glaciers, and causes sea level rise, which threatens island states and coastal territories. In addition, it causes desertification and extreme weather events: thousands of people are killed, millions are deprived of livelihoods, condemned to hunger, misery and migration. Heat and disasters then cause a series of diseases to proliferate.

“The greater the warming, the worse the impact – commented Wmo general secretary, Petteri Taalas -. We have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today that the goal of 1.5 degrees (of warming compared to pre-industrial levels, ed) of the Paris Agreement is barely achievable ”. For Talaas “it is already too late for many glaciers, and the melting will continue for hundreds if not thousands of years, with enormous consequences for water security”. The increase of a few millimeters per year in sea levels means “an increase from half a meter to one meter in a century, and this is a threat to millions of inhabitants of coastal areas and islands”. “Those least responsible for climate change suffer the most – concluded Talaas -, as we have seen with the terrible floods in Pakistan and the long and deadly drought in the Horn of Africa. But even well-prepared societies have been hit by extreme events this year, as we have seen from heat waves and droughts in large parts of Europe and southern China ”.

In Africa 19 million go hungry due to drought

Drought in 2022 starved 19 million people in East Africa, while floods killed 1,700 people in Pakistan and forced nearly 8 million to leave their villages. These are the worst consequences of global warming this year. In East Africa, rainfall has been below average for four consecutive seasons, the longest in 40 years, and there are indications that the current season will also be dry. Between 18.4 and 19.3 million people were in a food crisis situation before June 2022 in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Record rains in July and August led to extensive floods in Pakistan. There have been at least 1,700 deaths and 33 million people affected. There were 7.9 million displaced people. Southern Africa, and Madagascar in particular, was hit by a series of cyclones earlier this year. Hurricane Ian in September caused death and destruction in Cuba and Florida.

Much of the Northern Hemisphere has been exceptionally hot and dry this year. China has had the longest and longest heat wave in history, and the second driest summer on record. The Yangtze River in Wuhan reached its lowest level on record in August. Large areas of Europe have suffered repeated episodes of extreme heat. The UK on 19 July set its national record, with over 40 degrees for the first time. The heat was accompanied by drought and fires. European rivers, including the Rhine, the Loire and the Danube, have fallen to critical levels.

In 2022, record of melting of alpine glaciers

2022 broke the 2003 record for the melting of alpine ice sheets, with losses in thickness from 3 to 4 meters. In Switzerland, 6% of the volume of glaciers has been lost. Arctic ice extent has been below the 1981-2010 average for most of the year. In Antarctica on February 25, the smallest extent of ice has been recorded since there have been surveys: only 1.92 million square km, 1 million square km below the long-term average.