Pace of rise in global sea level has doubled - UN climate report

Ireland’s hottest day in 137 years is held as one of numerous examples of a deepening climate crisis in the latest report published by the world Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Friday.

Last July, a temperature of 33 degrees was recorded at Dublin’s Phoenix Park weather station, the highest on record since 1887.

The WMO used this, as well as other concerning spikes in Europe and elsewhere, to underscore its latest message of urgency regarding rising temperatures and sea levels.

“Record high annual temperatures were reported in western Europe,” it said, “where a number of countries had their warmest year on record, including the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.”

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It found global sea levels have been rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements in 1993-2002 and touched a new record high last year.

Extreme glacier melt and record ocean heat levels – which cause water to expand – contributed to an average rise in sea levels of 4.62mm a year between 2013-2022, the UN agency said in a major report detailing the havoc of climate change.

That is about double the pace of the first decade on record, 1993-2002, leading to a total increase of over 10cm since the early 1990s.

Rising sea levels threaten some coastal cities and the very existence of low-lying states such as the island of Tuvalu – which plans to build a digital version of itself in case it is submerged.

“This report shows that, once again, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere continue to reach record levels – contributing to warming of the land and ocean, melting of ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and warming and acidifying of oceans,” WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas said in a foreword.

The annual report, released a day in advance of Earth Day, also showed that sea ice in Antarctica receded to record lows last June and July. Oceans were the warmest on record, with around 58 per cent of their surfaces experiencing a marine heatwave, it said.

Overall, the WMO said 2022 ranked as the fifth- or sixth-warmest year on record with the mean global temperature 1.15 degrees above the pre-industrial average, despite the cooling impact of a three-year La Niña climatic event.

Climate scientists have warned that the world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024.

Volunteers in dozens of countries are set to plant trees, clean up rubbish and urge governments to do more to combat climate change to mark Earth Day, as scientists warn of more extreme weather and record temperatures this year.

The run-up to the 54th annual celebration of the environment, officially marked on Saturday, has included a week of conservation and clean-up activities around the world, and festivals begin in Rome and Boston on Friday.

Thousands are gathering in London on Friday to begin four days of events known as the Big One, organised by the Extinction Rebellion activist group.

On Saturday, volunteers will also begin major clean-up campaigns at Lake Dal in India’s Srinigar and Florida’s hurricane-hit Cape Coral.

On Thursday, US president Joe Biden pledged to increase US funding to help developing countries fight climate change and curb deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest during a meeting with leaders from the world’s largest economies.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told countries attending Mr Biden’s Major Economies Forum that “a quantum leap in climate action” was required to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees.

He warned in a recorded Earth Day message that “we seem hell-bent on destruction”.

Earth Day this year follows weeks of extreme weather with temperatures hitting a record 45.4 degrees in Thailand and another punishing heatwave in India, where at least 13 people died of heatstroke at a ceremony last weekend. – Reuters