BBC 28 Mar 19;
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that the physical and financial impacts of global warming are accelerating.
Record greenhouse gas levels are driving temperatures to "increasingly dangerous levels", it says.
Their report comes in the same week as the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported a surge in CO2 in 2018.
However, new data from the UK suggests Britain is bucking the trend with emissions down by 3%.
This year's State of the Climate report from the WMO is the 25th annual record of the climate.
When it first came out in 1993, carbon dioxide levels were at 357 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere. These have now risen to 405.5ppm and are expected to increase further.
This is having a significant impact on temperatures, with 2018 the fourth warmest year on record, almost 1C above what they were in the period between 1850-1900.
The years between 2015 and 2018 were the four warmest on that record, the study says.
"This report makes it very clear that the impacts of climate change are accelerating," said Prof Samantha Hepburn who is director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resource Law at Deakin University in Australia.
"We know that if the current trajectory for greenhouse gas concentrations continues, temperatures may increase by 3 - 5 degrees C compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century and we have already reached 1 degree."
While some of these figures were published in a preliminary release of the study from last November, the full version has data on many key climate indicators, that the WMO says break new ground.
One example is ocean heat content. More than 90% of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases goes into the seas and according to the WMO, 2018 saw new records set for the amount of ocean heat content found in the upper 700 metres of the seas, and also for the upper 2,000 metres.
Sea levels also continued to increase with global mean sea level rising 3.7mm higher in 2018 than the previous year.
"This report highlights the increase in the rate of sea-level rise, and this is a real concern for those living in low-lying coastal areas, for both developing and developing countries," said Dr Sally Brown, a research fellow at the University of Southampton.
"We know that sea-level rise is a global problem that will not go away, and efforts need to be made to help those who are really vulnerable to adapt to sea-level rise or move to safer areas."
The head of the WMO say that the signals of warming continue to be seen in events since the turn of the year.
"Extreme weather has continued in the early 2019, most recently with Tropical Cyclone Idai, which caused devastating floods and tragic loss of life in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. It may turn out to be one of the deadliest weather-related disasters to hit the southern hemisphere," said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas.
"Idai made landfall over the city of Beira: a rapidly growing, low-lying city on a coastline vulnerable to storm surges and already facing the consequences of sea level rise. Idai's victims personify why we need the global agenda on sustainable development, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction," said Mr Taalas.
The report has been launched at a news conference in New York attended by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
"There is no longer any time for delay," he wrote in a foreword to the new study.
However earlier this week the International Energy Agency published worrying data, indicating that in 2018 carbon emissions were up 1.7%, as a result of the fastest growth in energy use in the last six years.
The UK government has also released emissions data about greenhouse gas emissions over the past year. The figures show that emissions across the UK have fallen by 3% over the last year, the equivalent the government says, of taking 5 million cars off the road.
Factors driving UK emissions down include the fact that coal was the source of just 5% of electricity in 2018.
The government now says that carbon emissions are at their lowest level since before the turn of the 20th century, when Queen Victoria was on the throne.
Ocean heat hits record high: UN
AFP Yahoo News 29 Mar 19;
Geneva (AFP) - Ocean heat hit a record high in 2018, the United Nations said Thursday, raising urgent new concerns about the threat global warming is posing to marine life.
In its latest State of the Climate overview, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reaffirmed that the last four years had been the hottest on record -- figures previously announced in provisional drafts of the flagship report.
But the final version of the report highlighted worrying developments in other climate indicators beyond surface temperature.
"2018 saw new records for ocean heat content in the upper 700 metres," a WMO statement said.
The agency said the UN had data for heat content in the upper 700 metres (2,290 feet) of the ocean dating back to 1955.
Last year also saw new heat records for the ocean's upper 2,000 metres, but data for that range only goes back to 2005.
The previous records for both ranges were set in 2017.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the latest findings as "another strong wake-up call" for governments, cities and businesses to take action.
"It proves what we have been saying that climate change is moving faster than our efforts to address it," he said at UN headquarters in New York.
The United Nations is hosting a major summit on September 23 that is billed as a last-chance opportunity for leaders to tackle climate change, which Guterres has described as the defining issue of our time.
The UN chief has urged world leaders to come to the summit with concrete plans, instead of speeches, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent over the next decade and to net zero by 2050.
- Warming oceans -
About 93 percent of excess heat -- trapped around the Earth by greenhouse gases that come from the burning of fossil fuels -- accumulates in the world's oceans.
Research published earlier this year in the US journal Science showed that warming in the oceans is on pace with measurements of rising air temperature.
Some models predict the temperature of the top 2,000 metres of the world's oceans will rise nearly 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to Science.
Oceans are also not warming evenly across the planet.
The WMO report said the highest rates of ocean warming are occurring in the southern ocean, where warming has also reached the deepest layers.
This could result in sea levels being substantially different in different places, experts have previously said.
The thermal expansion -- water swelling as it warms -- is expected to raise sea levels 12 inches (30 centimetres), above any sea level rise from melting glaciers and ice sheets, according to the research published in Science.
UN report: Extreme weather hit 62 million people in 2018
SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Mar 19;
FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 file photo, tourists walk in the flooded St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, as rainstorms and strong winds hit the area. On Thursday, March 28, 2019, the United Nations’ weather agency says extreme weather in 2018 hit 62 million people worldwide last year and created 2 million refugees as man-made climate change worsened. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The United Nations' weather agency says extreme weather last year hit 62 million people worldwide and forced 2 million people to relocate, as man-made climate change worsened.
The World Meteorological Organization's annual state of global climate report says Earth is nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than when the industrial age started. World leaders are trying to limit warming to 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius).
Emissions from burning fuels such as coal, gasoline and diesel for electricity and transportation are contributing to global warming that in turn brings more intense storms, floods and droughts.
"We have seen a growing amount of disasters because of climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. He said since 1998, about 4.5 billion around the world have been hurt by extreme weather.
Cyclone Idai that just hit Mozambique is a good example, but is too recent to be in the report, Taalas said.
The past four years were the warmest on record, according the to the report. That includes 2018, the warmest La Nina year on record, Taalas said. La Nina, a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide, usually cools global temperature a bit.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on global leaders to convene in September with plans to reduce emissions.
"I'm telling leaders, don't come with a speech, come with a plan," Guterres said.
Guterres said climate change is a security and health issue for the world.
"The impact on public health is escalating," Guterres said. "The combination of extreme heat and air pollution is proving increasingly dangerous."
The 44-page report says:
—Floods affected 35 million people.
—Drought hit another 9 million people, adding to the problem of growing enough food to feed the world.
- Ocean heat reached a record high, and oceans are getting more acidic and losing oxygen.
- With some exceptions, glaciers are melting and ice in the polar oceans is shrinking.
- The level of carbon dioxide in the air hit record highs.
"Carbon dioxide is the major problem here," Taalas said, adding that the gas stays in the air for hundreds of years.
