The annual United Nations climate summit, known as COP27, began this Sunday in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh. The negotiators of the almost 200 countries that participate in the meeting have begun to work with a reminder of what is happening to the planet and to humanity. “The effects of climate change are intensifying,” warned the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This organization, linked to the UN, warns that the global average temperature of 2022 is 1.15 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1990), that is, before the human being began to use massively fossil fuels that, when burned, emit greenhouse gases that overheat the planet. “The rise in sea level is accelerating, the melting of European glaciers breaks records and extreme weather events cause devastation,” also warns the WMO, which presented this Sunday a preview of the summary of the state of the climate for 2022.
This body maintains that the last eight years (2015-2022) are likely to be the eight warmest years on record so far. Precisely in 2015, the Paris Agreement against climate change was signed at the summit held in the French capital. That pact sets as an objective that warming does not exceed 2 degrees Celsius and as far as possible 1.5, always with respect to pre-industrial levels. But the planet is warming by 1.1 degrees and the concentration of the main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere continues to set records every year. This was the case in 2021 and this is what it seems will happen this year, because “according to data from the main monitoring stations, the atmospheric levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022.”
The effects of climate change are not only manifested in the average increase in temperatures. They are also “felt more frequently and more clearly during extreme events such as heavy rain and snow, droughts, heat waves, cold snaps, and storms, including tropical storms and cyclones.” The WMO makes a brief summary of the most adverse weather events of this 2022 and heads it with the heat waves and floods that have hit Asia, especially India and, above all, Pakistan. “The heat caused a decline in crop yields. This, combined with India’s wheat export ban and rice export restrictions, threatens international food markets and poses risks to countries already affected by shortages of staple foods.
At the climate summit that began this Sunday, it is expected that the issue of loss and damage caused by climate change in the most vulnerable countries will be at a prominent place on the negotiating agenda. The poorest nations and those exposed to warming want the foundations to be laid for the creation of a compensation mechanism or fund. “If there is an issue on which there should be significant progress at this COP, it is precisely loss and damage,” says Laura Juliana Arciniegas, an expert in climate and environmental diplomacy. “The increase in the impacts of climate change in developing countries and its associated losses, which is added to the current economic crisis, makes it more urgent than ever to specify the support that the climate regime is going to provide, including to through a specific financial mechanism. Key countries in this discussion such as the United States have signaled their intention to cooperate and evaluate options to make progress at this COP that could facilitate it,” she adds.
During the opening plenary session, the president of COP27, the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, insisted on the importance of developed countries fulfilling their climate financing commitments for the most vulnerable nations. And he has confirmed that there will be a specific negotiating group on loss and damage at this summit.
Information is the first tool against climate change. Subscribe to it.
subscribe
For many years, the discussion about compensation for loss and damage—those impacts that are irreversible, such as islands that will disappear due to rising sea levels or economic losses linked to extreme weather events—has been postponed. However, it is now expected that it can have a good boost at this COP27.
Although the summit, which will last two weeks, has begun this Sunday, the informal inauguration will not be until Monday. Around 125 heads of state and government will participate in the opening. The main leaders of the EU will be there —among them Pedro Sánchez— and, although he will not be at the inauguration, Joe Biden, president of the United States, will also attend Sharm el Sheikh at the end of the week. However, the top leaders of China, India and Russia are not expected to participate in person. This does not mean that these countries will not be at the summit, since their ministers and delegates will participate in the negotiations.
“Change is happening with catastrophic speed, devastating lives and livelihoods on all continents,” warned António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, this Sunday during the presentation of the WMO report. The document devotes a chapter to the floods that occurred this summer in Pakistan. “Preliminary satellite data indicated that 75,000 square kilometers, about 9% of Pakistan’s area, was flooded at some point during August 28.” The balance of damage is tremendous: 1,700 people died in the floods, in addition to 936,000 head of cattle; food prices increased by 29%; and 7.9 million people were displaced from their homes. “The latest report on the state of the global climate is a chronicle of climate chaos,” added Guterres.
In East Africa, rainfall has been below average for four consecutive rainy seasons – something that had never happened in the last 40 years – and “everything indicates that the current season could also be dry,” explains the WMO. This situation is triggering hunger: “As a result of the persistent drought and other aggravating factors, it is estimated that, before June 2022, between 18.4 and 19.3 million people were in a food crisis situation or had to face more severe levels of acute food insecurity.”
Indicators
Apart from extreme events, the WMO reviews some of the indicators of global warming, such as the rise in sea level or the melting of European glaciers. For example, since 1993 the rate at which sea level is rising has doubled. And “10% of the increase recorded on a global scale since satellite measurements began to be obtained -almost 30 years ago- is concentrated in the last two and a half years”.
On the other hand, the melting of glaciers in the European Alps “broke records in 2022”. “Average thickness losses of between three and more than four meters were measured in the Alps as a whole, values notably higher than those of 2003, the last year in which the melting was more prominent.” It is estimated that between 2021 and 2022 Swiss glaciers lost 6% of their ice volume, the WMO points out.
You can follow CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT at Facebook Y Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter
#climate #summit #begins #warning #negative #effects #warming #intensifying