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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed it: 2023 was the warmest year since records exist. And if that were not enough, several indicators of climate change reached unprecedented levels last year. Through the detailed report published this Tuesday, the organization makes it clear that the current scenario that the planet is experiencing is alarming: only in 2023 did the rise in global mean sea level reach a historical maximum – with an increase rate in the last ten years which doubled from the decade of 1993 to 2002; global average ocean temperatures hit 65-year highs; The extent of Antarctic sea ice reached a minimum ever recorded in February and a set of glaciers that serve as a reference to know what happened at a hydrological level in the period 2022-2023 experienced the greatest loss of ice.
And there are no signs of a change of course. According to the report, the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – three of the gases that create the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere and, therefore, which must be blamed for climate change – reached observed record levels. Although climate finance managed to raise $1.3 trillion in 2021-2022, almost double compared to 2019-2020 levels, the financing gap remains enormous. If the world aims to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C, as sought by the Paris Agreement, annual investments in climate action will need to be six times greater, reaching almost $9 trillion by 2030 and beyond. 10 trillion more by 2050.
“The WMO community is sounding the red alert in the world,” Argentine Celeste Saulo, Secretary General of the Organization, said in a statement. There she also remembered that climate change goes far beyond the increase in temperature and that it has to do with the oceans, with glaciers, and has an impact on economic issues, displacement and food security.
Latin America and the Caribbean is no exception, and had its particular way of living – or surviving – what has been the hottest year in history so far. The report, for example, points out that the surface temperature of the ocean broke limits between July and September of last year, with the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean being two of the places where “exceptional heat” was observed. Regarding the temperature of the earth, it also says that “unusually warm temperatures were recorded in large areas of northern Canada, the southern United States, Mexico and Central America, as well as in large areas of South America.”
As expected, the change from the prolonged period of the La Niña to El Niño phenomenon that was established in September 2023 also played a role in the region. From Mexico to northern South America, El Niño generated drier than normal conditions, while parts of Chile influenced wetter conditions. “As global mean temperature anomalies increased during the transition from La Niña to El Niño, many regions also experienced heat waves,” the report clarifies. Among these regions he mentions Mexico, the United States and South America. Among the places that experienced a marked rainfall deficit, he also points out southern South America, the Amazon basin and Central America.
From Otis in Mexico to lack of rain in Brazil
Everything indicates that climate change is making extreme events more intense and frequent, and during 2023 these types of scenarios were experienced on all continents. However, the report highlights some of the most shocking cases that occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hurricane Otis, they say, was the event that reported the greatest economic losses during 2023. “Otis was declared a hurricane at 1800 UTC on October 24, and in nine hours it had intensified until it became a category 5 system, one of the fastest intensification rates observed in the satellite era,” the report comments. Upon reaching land, it left economic losses reaching 15,000 million dollars, 47 people dead and 32 missing.
But despite being the most notorious and perhaps shocking, it is not the only extreme event that occurred in the region last year. In Argentina and Uruguay, extreme drought was experienced, while in Brazil, between July and September, eight states reported the lowest level of rainfall in 40 years.
Putting all these scenarios together, of course, comes with an economic and social impact. In Argentina, according to the report, dry conditions affected cereal production, which could have fallen by 15% compared to the average of recent years, a scenario that was replicated in Central America, along the Dry Corridor and in Haiti, whose Crops were affected by weather conditions. Although if you have to see the glass half full, the report also points out that a record corn production that Brazil achieved during 2023 compensated for what was happening in other countries in the region.
“The climate crisis is the essential challenge facing humanity and is closely interrelated with the inequality crisis, as witnessed by the increase in food insecurity and population displacements, and the loss of biodiversity,” Saulo also clarified in the release.
And although the data and information given by the WMO report are limited to what happened in 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, the truth is that 2024 also started busy for the region. In countries like Colombia, several weather stations have reported historical heat records and, without going any further, the fires that occurred in Chile at the beginning of February are already classified as among the most fatal in recent years.
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