Natural disasters new reality due to climate change: report

Ground Report | New Delhi: Natural disasters new reality; The World Meteorological Organization says that natural disasters like terrible floods and strong hot winds have now become a new reality. The 2021 report on the state of the climate states that "the world is changing before our eyes."

According to the report, since 2002, the average temperature in 20 years is likely to exceed 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time. At the same time, the global sea level has reached a new high in 2021.

Natural disasters new reality

In view of the 26th United Nations Climate Summit being held in Glasgow, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released new data for the year 2021 early.

The report outlines climate indicators including temperature, extreme climate events, sea-level rise, and ocean conditions. The study says that due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at record levels, this year is expected to be the hottest in the last seven years, including this year.

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"Evidence is mounting that in some of these events" - citing fires in America, torrential rains in China, floods in Germany - "is the trace of human-induced climate change." For the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, the conclusion is that "we must act now, with ambition and solidarity, to safeguard our future and save humanity."

In their Provisional Status of Global Climate 2021, the international network of meteorological offices and other experts conclude that "the last seven years are on track to be the hottest seven on record." Emissions continue to increase and consequently, the density of CO2 in the atmosphere also increases 413.2 parts per million in 2020, and that of other greenhouse gases.

The report, with indicators on the increase in ocean temperature, on the evolution of sea level and sea ice, on extreme weather and rainfall, was published coinciding with the opening of the summit. It was a day of discreet work for the delegations, massive accreditation of participants, demonstrations by activists, and heavy rains that led local meteorologists to issue a yellow card.

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Unfinished

In the vast compound of the official conference, to which must be added the space for non-governmental organizations, on the other bank of the Clyde, details were finished. Initiatives are deployed to have a safe summit against the coronavirus and emblematic of the new world. The 'haggis', a famous kind of Scottish blood sausage that includes minced meat from the stomach, heart, and lung of sheep, is served on the premises in a vegetarian version.

For Patricia Espìnosa, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, the United Nations group that organizes COP26, the ambition is for Glasgow to become "the starting point of an age of resilience", in which the countries of the world are expected to that close to two hundred join the final agreement - commit to "a rapid and large-scale reduction of emissions" and to "enhance adaptation efforts to cope with current extreme weather disasters."

This Monday begins the Leaders' Summit, in which words from the host countries, the United Kingdom and Italy, the negotiation between the most significant countries -with the absence of those from China, Russia, and Brazil-, and the announcements of national commitments will be combined. For Espinosa, "the success of this COP26 is possible because we know the way of solutions." It would be meeting the "unfinished" objectives of the Paris summit.

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