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As per the state of Global climate report, the year 2020 is among the warmest years on record
Key findings of the report
- The World Meteorological Organization’s(WMO) provisional report states that year 2020 is expected to go down as one of the warmest in history with global temperatures about 1.2°C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level
- The report also says 2011-20 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all coming since 2015. The warmest year on record is 2016, followed closely by 2020.
- Secretary of WMO says that there is at least a one in five chance of global temperatures temporarily exceeding the pre-industrial level by 1.5°C by 2024.
- WMO’s provisional report is based on data findings between January-October 2020. A final report will be released in March.
- As per the report, the past six years, 2015 to 2020, are set to make up all six of the hottest years since modern records began in 1850
- It also adds that temperature averages across the last five years, and across the last 10-year period, “are also the warmest on record
- the WMO said that oceans, which have absorbed 93% of heat captured by greenhouse gases since the 1970s, registered record heat levels
- The data in the report showed that more than 80% of the ocean experienced a marine heatwave at some time during this year, with marine ecosystems already suffering from more acidic waters as a consequence of carbon dioxide absorption.
- The report estimates that there is at least a 20% chance that global average temperatures will temporarily increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2024, from 1850 to 1900 levels, the UN agency estimated.
- In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries pledged to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming below 2ºC and ideally close to 1.5ºC by the end of this century
Source: The Hindu & The Indian Express
