Report at Cop27 shows the world is now deep into the climate emergency, with the 1.5C heating limit ‘barely within reach’
The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”, it said.
The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.
Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are at record levels in the atmosphere as emissions continue. The annual increase in methane, a potent greenhouse gas, was the highest on record.
The sea level is now rising twice as fast as 30 years ago and the oceans are hotter than ever.
Records for glacier melting in the Alps were shattered in 2022, with an average of 13ft (4 metres) in height lost.
Rain – not snow – was recorded on the 3,200m-high summit of the Greenland ice sheet for the first time.
The Antarctic sea-ice area fell to its lowest level on record, almost 1m km2 below the long-term average.
Devastating flooding in Pakistan, with at least 1,700 deaths and 7.9 million people displaced.
A series of cyclones that battered southern Africa, which hit Madagascar hardest with torrential rain.
Exceptional heatwaves and droughts in the northern hemisphere, with China enduring its longest heatwave on record, the UK passing 40C for the first time, and European rivers including the Rhine, Loire and Danube falling to critically low levels.
Hurricane Ian wreaking extensive damage and loss of life in Cuba and Florida.
