Climate change brought more drought, flooding and heatwaves to communities on every continent, costing many billions of dollars in losses, new report has shown.
The newly released 2022 World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) annual report titled: “The State of the Global Climate 2022”, highlighted the relentless advance of climate change and the compounding threats to lives and livelihoods.
According to the report, while greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate continues to change, populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events.
For example, in 2022, it noted that continuous drought in East Africa, record-breaking rainfall in Pakistan and heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage.
Throughout the year, hazardous climate and weather-related events drove new population displacement and worsened conditions for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement at the beginning of the year, according to the report.
In addition, rising undernourishment has been exacerbated by the compounded effects of hydrometeorological hazards and COVID-19, as well as of protracted conflicts and violence.
“The UN Early Warnings for All Initiative aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on earth is covered by early warning services. At the moment about 100 countries do not have adequate weather services in place,” said WMO Secretary-General, Petteri Taalas.
He added: “Achieving this ambitious task requires improvement of observation networks, investments in early warning, hydrological and climate service capacities”.
Taalas also said that collaboration amongst UN agencies had proven to be very effective in addressing humanitarian impacts induced by extreme weather and climate events, especially in reducing associated mortality and economic losses.
Key findings of the report echoes the message of UN Secretary-General António Guterres for Earth Day 2023, where he called for scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the climate change crisis.
“We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions. But we must pick up the pace. We need accelerated climate action with deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius,” Guterres said.