UN warns 2023 set to be hottest year ever, urges immediate action

The United Nations (UN) declared Thursday that this year is on track to become the hottest ever recorded, emphasising the need for immediate action to curb global warming and mitigate the widespread damage it is causing. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) cautioned that 2023 has set numerous climate records, resulting in a trail of devastation and despair due to extreme weather events. “It’s a deafening cacophony of broken records,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas, reported AFP. “Greenhouse gas levels are record high. Global temperatures are record high. Sea level rise is record high. Antarctic sea ice is record low.” The WMO published its provisional 2023 State of the Global Climate report as world leaders gathered in Dubai for the UN COP28 climate conference, amid mounting pressure to curb planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution. UN chief Antonio Guterres underscored the alarming significance of the record-breaking heat, urging world leaders to take decisive action. According to the WMO report, data until the end of October revealed that 2023 was already approximately 1.4 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline. The agency is set to publish its final State of the Global Climate 2023 report in the first half of 2024, noting that the difference between the first 10 months of this year and the previously warmest years, 2016 and 2020, makes it unlikely that the final two months will significantly impact the rankings. The report also showed that the past nine years were the hottest years since modern records began. “These are more than just statistics,” Taalas said, warning that “we risk losing the race to save our glaciers and to rein in sea level rise”. “We cannot return to the climate of the 20th century, but we must act now to limit the risks of an increasingly inhospitable climate in this and the coming centuries.” With inputs from agencies