‘Earth is sending us a distress signal’: UN chief warns past eight years have been hottest on record

The past eight years have been the warmest on record and should be seen as a ‘distress signal’ from planet Earth, the UN Secretary-General warned yesterday.

According to a report by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the global temperature is now estimated to be 1.15°C higher than it was between 1850 and 1900.

It means the target of limiting global warming to 1.5C is now ‘barely within reach’ amid warnings of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. The annual State of the Global Climate report added that this year alone could be the fifth warmest year on record.

Ahead of the Cop27 summit in Egypt, Antonio Guterres said: “We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action: ambitious, credible climate action. Cop27 must be the place – and now must be the time.’

The past eight years have been the warmest on record and should be seen as a ‘distress signal’ from planet Earth, UN secretary general warned yesterday

The Earth’s temperature is treading dangerous territory as the UK hits 40C for the first time.

Guterres said: “As COP27 kicks off, our planet is sending out a distress signal. The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos.’

WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said the Paris agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is in danger of failing. He said: ‘The greater the warming, the greater the impact.

‘We have such high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere now that the lower 1.5C of the Paris Agreement is barely within reach.

The WMO added in a statement ‘a lack of action has led to warnings that the 1.5C target is slipping’.

At the summit, countries try to take action to reduce the greenhouse gases that result from burning oil, coal, gas farming and deforestation. But the three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, have all risen to record levels, the report said.

At current rates, the Earth will warm by 2.6-2.8 degrees by 2100, UN scientists warn. The WMO report shows that 2022 is likely to be the fifth or sixth warmest year on record.

It would be warmer if it weren’t for the weather phenomenon La Nina, which has lowered global temperatures over the past two years.

The report describes the devastation to glaciers and said glaciers in the European Alps lost an average of three to four meters of ice thickness across the mountain range — significantly more than the previous record year of 2003.

Guterres said: “As COP27 kicks off, our planet is sending out a distress signal. Latest State of the Global Climate Report is a Chronicle of Climate Chaos’

According to the report, glacial ice in Switzerland decreased by more than a third between 2001 and 2022. Since January 2020, the sea level has risen by almost 10 mm to a new record this year.

Ocean heat was at record levels in 2021, the last year under review, while Arctic sea ice extent was below the long-term average for most of the year this year. Sea ice in Antarctica fell to its lowest level in February.

Leading climate scientist Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, president of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said: ‘One detail sums it up: Switzerland has lost more than a third of its glacier volume since 2001.

“How much more warning do they need before the countries of the world turn from talk and promise to real action?”