UN voices ‘alarming surge’ in climate change as COP28 pushes for global emissions cuts

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 6th Dec. UN World Meteorological Organization head on Tuesday said that the past decade has been confirmed the warmest ever recorded, continuing an alarming 30-year trend is “unequivocally driven by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.” 

According to a new report from the UN World Meteorological Organization the decade between 2011-2020 saw continued rising concentrations of greenhouse gasses that “turbo charged” dramatic glacier loss and sea-level rise at marked by record breaking land and ocean temperatures. 

The report came out as the latest annual UN climate conference, COP28, reaches its midway point in Dubai, where countries have agreed on a new voluntary fund to pay vulnerable nations for losses and damages due to climate change. 

The tough negotiations are ahead in the coming days regarding targets to curb greenhouse emissions and the phase out fossil fuels. 

The WMO Decadal State of the Climate report was launched in Dubai, reveals that between 2011 and 2020, more countries reported record high temperatures than in any other decade. 

It sounds the alarm at the “particularly profound transformation” taking place in the polar regions and high mountains. 

WMO warned that climate shocks are undermining sustainable development, with a dire impact on global food security, displacement, and migration. 

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said “Each decade since the 1990s has been warmer than the one before it, and we see no immediate sign of this trend reversing,” and underscored “We are losing the race to save our melting glaciers and ice sheets.” 

The report painted a grim picture, but it highlights positive developments, including that successful international efforts to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals under the Montreal Protocol have resulted in a smaller Antarctic ozone hole during the 2011-2020 period. 

The advancements in forecasts, early warning systems, and coordinated disaster management have reduced casualties from extreme events, even though economic losses have increased, the WMO researchers observed. 

The report underscored the need for more substantial measures. Both public and private climate finance nearly doubled from 2011 to 2020, a sevenfold increase is necessary by the decade’s end to meet climate objectives. 

The UN climate conference will focus on issues that include scaling up financing for the Paris Agreement, slashing emissions in the cooling sector, ensuring a climate resilient energy sector and a dialogue with indigenous peoples. 

The world’s largest climate gathering will identify what more needs to be done to reach Paris Agreement targets set in 2015 and set the agenda for years to come.

UN chief António Guterres has said the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change “must commit countries to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency, and bring clean energy to all, by 2030.” 

He reiterated calls for a complete phase out of fossil fuels to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius to ensure the transition is equitable and just. 

The loss and damage fund designed to support climate-vulnerable developing countries was brought to life on the first day of the gathering in an early COP 28 win.

Leaders have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars so far, while humanitarians have stressed the need to include affected communities in decisions on funding allocation. 

The conference will see the countries’ ability to use the conclusions of the global stocktake an inventory of progress to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost climate adaptation and finance as a way forward for more ambitious climate action plans.