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FOUR KEY CLIMATE change indicators all set new record highs in 2021, the United Nations said today, warning that the global energy system was driving humanity towards catastrophe.
Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all set new records last year, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its “State of the Global Climate in 2021″ report.
The annual overview is “a dismal litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”, UN chief Antonio Guterres said.
“The global energy system is broken and bringing us ever closer to climate catastrophe.
“We must end fossil fuel pollution and accelerate the renewable energy transition before we incinerate our only home.”
The WMO said human activity was causing planetary-scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere, with harmful and long-lasting ramifications for ecosystems.
Record heat
The report confirmed that the past seven years were the top seven hottest years on record.
Back-to-back La Nina events at the start and end of 2021 had a cooling effect on global temperatures last year.
Even so, it was still one of the warmest years ever recorded, with the average global temperature in 2021 about 1.11 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change saw countries agree to cap global warming at “well below” 2C above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 — and 1.5C if possible.
“Our climate is changing before our eyes,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas.
“The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come. Sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification will continue for hundreds of years unless means to remove carbon from the atmosphere are invented.”
‘Consistent picture of warming world’
Four key indicators of climate change “build a consistent picture of a warming world that touches all parts of the Earth system”, the report said.
Greenhouse gas concentrations reached a new global high in 2020, when the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 413.2 parts per million (ppm) globally, or 149% of the pre-industrial level.
Data indicate that they continued to increase in 2021 and early 2022, with monthly average CO2 at Mauna Loa in Hawaii reaching 416.45 ppm in April 2020, 419.05 ppm in April 2021, and 420.23 ppm in April 2022, the report said.
Global mean sea level reached a new record high in 2021, rising an average of 4.5 millimetres per year throughout 2013 to 2021, the report said.
GMSL rose by 2.1 mm per year between 1993 and 2002, with the increase between the two time periods “mostly due to the accelerated loss of ice mass from the ice sheets”, it said.
Signs in the seas
Ocean heat hit a record high last year, exceeding the 2020 value, the report said.
And it is expected that the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean will continue to warm in the future — “a change which is irreversible on centennial to millennial timescales”, said the WMO, adding that the warmth was penetrating to ever deeper levels.
The ocean absorbs around 23% of the annual emissions of human-caused CO2 into the atmosphere. While this slows the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, CO2 reacts with seawater and leads to ocean acidification.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded with “very high confidence” that open ocean surface acidity is at the highest “for at least 26,000 years”.
Meanwhile the report said the Antarctic ozone hole reached an “unusually deep and large” maximum area of 24.8 million square kilometres in 2021, driven by a strong and stable polar vortex.
Guterres proposed five actions to jump-start the transition to renewable energy “before it’s too late”.
Among them, he suggested ending fossil fuel subsidies, tripling investments in renewable energy and making renewable energy technologies, such as battery storage, freely-available global public goods.
“If we act together, the renewable energy transformation can be the peace project of the 21st century,” Guterres said.
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Examining but actually doing something is another thing. We are a great bunch at examining and creating commitees but implementing on reports findings another story
its sad but your right even if anything is done it will take years and cost millions providing jobs for the boys with the end result nothing was found wrong and the money was just resting in my account
My wife works for the HSE. She’s supposed to be a community occupational therapist but with all the cut backs they have been told to do no travel which makes it hard to assess children in their homes and at their schools and they currently cannot even order paper for the printer. In any organisation there will be waste, but always remember blanket cuts or freezes affect all levels of service.
If they weren’t calling in the office of public works to change their printer cartridges there might be a few bob extra for them to spend on paper.
Ask Aonghus O’Snodaigh or any other Sinn Fein rep to get some free ink cartridges for the printer – I am sure they could spare one or two,
We spend more money per capita on health than many other good health systems like Sweden , Australia UK etc , its plainly obvious there are many inefficiencies in our system that need fixing , it seems to only get people attention now that the health budgets are attracting attention of troika but why in the name of god can a relatively small country that spends so much money on health not get its act together and organise itself to root out so much of the costly waste and concentrate on patient care.
Too much administration. 80 : 20 ratio to direct medical/nursing staff.
Also duplication of services, security, payroll, admin, portering in every small parochial hospital propped up by local TDs.
What kinds of allowances are they talking about? A partial list that names examples would be handy in this article.
Re health & other allowances…instead of ‘gravy train’ can we now call it ‘taxpayer haemorrhage’…no pun intended.
This… I’ve seen first hand how much money is wasted on people taking medication they done need just because it’s free on the medical card!
So lets spend years examining and reviewing meeting and subsequent reviewing then maybe decide to do something about the waste of taxpayers money, Jo and there it is the UNIONS who hold this country to ransom. Sort them and you might have half a chance !!,
Most of the listed allowances are not paid. Worthless charade, systemic reform needed, not pay reform.
Look who is heading it one oh the chief Mandarins,don’t expect to much and you won’t be disappointed .
How about their own obscene allowances ?
oh Jesus draw that line in the sand please….the hse have started numerous initiatives to destroy the professions. they will eventually succeed. Professionals deserve to b well remunerated. No point in years of training otherwise. These allowances need to b reviewed for sure, along with social welfare, pensions, tax breaks, all the rest of it. reform the whole country instead of the current hot topic. The seanaid should b long gone too.
In other words …more cuts on the way for all.
have your say