Last year, a number of global climate change indicators hit record levels, and many countries called for accelerated action

Due to climate warming, the third largest glacier in the Alps, the Glacier Sea Glacier, is seriously melting. Photo by Shang Kaiyuan

23 March is World Meteorological Day, and this year's theme is "On the Front Line of Climate Action". According to the World Meteorological Organization's 2023 State of the Global Climate Report, 2023 was the hottest year on record, and the past 10 years have been the hottest on record. Heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones across the globe have impacted the daily lives of millions of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses. At the recent Copenhagen Climate Ministerial Conference, representatives of many countries called for further strengthening international cooperation, accelerating climate action, and actively addressing climate change, a common challenge for mankind.

"All major climate indicators are sounding the alarm"

"In 2023, the global average near-surface temperature will be 1.45 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average. "The State of the Global Climate 2023 report shows that in 2023 records were broken in global greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic ocean ice sheets and glacier retreat, and some were even significantly broken.

According to the report, global concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide reached their highest levels on record in 2023, with carbon dioxide concentrations 50% above pre-industrial levels and more than 90% by the end of 2023 of oceans experienced overheat wave conditions at some point, global sea level rise accelerated, more than doubling the rate of rise over the past decade, Antarctic sea ice extent retreated to its smallest level on record, and global glaciers experienced the largest ice loss on record......

In 2023, many parts of the world will experience extreme weather and climate events. Southern Europe and North Africa were hit by extreme high temperatures, with the highest temperature in Italy and other countries once approaching 50 degrees Celsius; serious wildfires in Hawaii, Canada, and Europe in the United States, with Canada burning more than 160,000 square kilometers in a year; Hurricane Daniel hit eastern Libya; and heavy rainfall caused floods in East Asia, South Asia, and North America.

According to the "European Climate Risk" report released by the European Environment Agency a few days ago, since the 80s of the 20th century, the warming rate of the European continent is about twice the rate of global warming. In recent years, Europe has broken a number of long-term climate records: extreme precipitation events are increasing in severity, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent, drought is becoming more severe in southern Europe, and climate risks are particularly acute in Europe's coastal and marine ecosystems, with flooding, coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion into low-lying coastal areas threatening many densely populated cities.

"All major climate indicators are sounding the alarm...... The implications for global sustainable development are severe. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the State of the Global Climate Report 2023 a "distress signal" from the planet, calling on countries to take immediate action to build the last lifeline for people and the planet.

"Impacting all aspects of sustainable development"

The increasing frequency of extreme weather and climate events has brought serious challenges to human society. "The climate crisis is exacerbating the crisis of inequality, affecting all aspects of sustainable development and undermining efforts to address poverty, hunger, health, population displacement and environmental degradation," said Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). ”

Data cited in the State of the Global Climate Report 2023 show that from 2019 to 2023, the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity increased from 149 million to 333 million in the 78 countries monitored by the United Nations World Food Programme. "Regional conflicts, economic recessions and other factors have led to higher agricultural costs and soaring food prices, while the frequency of extreme weather and climate events has further exacerbated global food insecurity. For example, in February 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit southern Africa, flooding large areas of agriculture and causing huge losses to the local economy, the report said.

The World Food Programme estimates that some 345 million people worldwide are currently facing acute food insecurity, of whom 40 million are in acute hunger. In much of Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, the rainfall in February was the lowest since records began in 1981, according to the University of California, Santa Barbara's Center for Climate Disasters. The flow of the Zambezi River is less than one-quarter of what it was a year ago, threatening local food security.

The European Climate Risk report identifies 36 key climate risks facing Europe, covering five key areas: food security, public health, ecosystems, infrastructure, and economics and finance. The report shows that several climate risks have reached critical levels when assessing severity levels. "If decisive action is not taken now, most known climate risks could reach critical or catastrophic levels by the end of the century, with economic losses from coastal flooding alone likely to exceed 1 trillion euros per year. "To ensure social resilience, EU and European policymakers must act now to reduce climate risks through rapid carbon reductions and strong adaptation policies and actions." ”

Guterres said rising global temperatures affect the future of all life on Earth. He called on all countries to take strong action to address climate change in line with the requirements of sustainable development, including accelerating the global energy transition, providing financing for climate action in developing countries, and ensuring that everyone in the world has access to weather warning services by the end of 2027.

"There needs to be a shift from dialogue to action"

Recently, the Climate Ministerial Conference jointly convened by Denmark, the UAE Presidency of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), and Azerbaijan, the Presidency of COP29, was held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Climate investment and financing, climate adaptation, etc., became important topics of the conference. The United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and the Brazilian COP30 presidency jointly issued a letter to all parties on the Troika partnership platform on the sidelines of the meeting, calling for greater sustainable collective climate action and cooperation in the development of a "roadmap for the 1.5C mission".

"There is an urgent need for accelerated action on climate change. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes that there is still a clear gap between current climate finance and adaptation needs, and that climate finance is still far from meeting the target funding. The committee recommends increasing private investment and accelerating the development of pipeline projects to help build climate resilience. Simon Steele, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat, said we need to make climate finance more and better to meet the growing financing needs of developing countries.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, 510 GW of new renewable energy capacity will be installed globally in 2023, an increase of nearly 50% from 2022 and the largest increase in the past 20 years. "This demonstrates the potential of the world to meet the clean energy target set by COP28 to triple global renewable energy capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030. "IEA Administrator Fatih Birol said that IEA is working with the UNFCCC Secretariat to ensure that commitments made by the international community are translated into action as quickly and at the speed and scale needed to advance a just, equitable and affordable energy transition and achieve shared global climate goals," said IEA Administrator Fatih Birol.

COP28 President Sultan Jaber said that for the common good, countries should come together to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and "we now need to move from dialogue to action".