‘Relentless climate change’ requires immediate global action, major UN report warns

WMO aims to pile pressure on governments with dossier of damning and concerning environmental findings ahead of this year’s Cop26 climate summit, writes Harry Cockburn

Wildfires broke out in Australia when heat records were broken in early 2020 (Getty )

The cost of failing to adapt to our warming world is rising, and despite a dip in emissions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, “relentless, continuing climate change”, is resulting in more extreme storms, floods and droughts, a United Nations report on the state of the climate has warned.

During 2020, people around the world were widely impacted by the “double blow” of extreme weather and the coronavirus crisis, but the economic slowdown failed to put a brake on the human activities driving the climate crisis, according to the new State of the Global Climate report compiled by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

2020 was one of the three warmest years on record, despite a cooling La Niña event, the report said, and the global average temperature was about 1.2C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level.