Earth barrelling towards ‘uncharted territory of destruction,’ new climate report warns

Weather, climate, and water-related disasters have increased by a factor of five over last 50 years, report says

The impact of climate change on the Earth is heading into “uncharted territory of destruction,” UN chief António Guterres warned following the release of a multi-agency report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The report, titled United in Science, warns that greenhouse gas concentrations across the globe continue to rise to record highs, and that fossil fuel use-driven emissions are above pre-pandemic levels after a temporary drop due to lockdowns.

“This year’s United in Science report shows climate impacts heading into uncharted territory of destruction. Yet each year we double-down on this fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get rapidly worse,” Mr Guterres said in a video message on Tuesday.

The agencies call for more ambitious action with floods, droughts, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events “going from bad to worse” across the globe.

“Ambition of emissions reduction pledges for 2030 needs to be seven times higher to meet the 1.5 °C goal of the Paris Agreement,” the report noted.

“Heatwaves in Europe. Colossal floods in Pakistan. Prolonged and severe droughts in China, the Horn of Africa and the US. There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” the UN chief said.

Citing data from different parts of the globe, the report cautions that levels of CO₂ have continued to increase in 2021 and 2022.

“The global increase in emissions observed in the first five months of 2022 is largely driven by the USA (+5.7 per cent), India (+7.5 per cent) and most of the European countries,” the report said.

With the carbon dioxide emissions getting worse, the agencies warn that it is increasingly likely the world could breach the 1.5-degree threshold for warming.

“Using the best estimate of warming since pre-industrial times, the likelihood of the annual mean global near-surface temperature temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the next five years is 48 per cent and is increasing with time,” the WMO report warned.

The report called for further research on tipping points to help society better understand the costs, benefits, and potential limitations of climate mitigation and adaptation.

It warned that the combined effects of higher temperatures and humidity in some parts of the world could reach “dangerous levels” within the next few decades.

This may lead to local conditions exceeding physiological tipping points beyond which outdoor human labour may no longer be possible without technical assistance, agencies warned in a statement.

Citing the example of Delhi, the report cautioned that cities are facing more frequent and more intense heat waves, compared to conditions during the 1950s.

“Between March and May 2022, Delhi, India, experienced five heat waves with record-breaking temperatures reaching up to 49.2 °C (120.5 °F). A recent attribution study concluded that climate change made this prolonged hot weather 30 times more likely and that the same event would have been about 1 °C cooler in a pre-industrial climate,” it noted.

Weather, climate, and water-related disasters have surged by a factor of five over the last five decades, the report said, adding that these events cost $202m in losses daily.

“It is more important than ever for the international community to take ambitious action to not only mitigate emissions, but also adapt to climate change, particularly extreme weather and compounding events, which can lead to long-lasting socioeconomic impacts,” the report noted.