The Earth is burning, and the alarm bells are ringing louder than ever. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has just released its latest Global State of the Climate report, confirming that 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record, a chilling confirmation of the accelerating climate crisis. This grim news arrives as the COP29 UN Climate Summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan, a stark reminder of the urgency for global action.
The report reveals that the last decade was the warmest ever recorded, a stark reality that scientists have been warning about for decades. “It’s not a surprise,” stated Secretary-General Celeste Saulo, lamenting the slow pace of global response. “We have to recognize that scientists have been marking this for many years — more than 30 years in fact — and that what is a surprise is the slowness to react.”
The WMO’s findings echo recent data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) which declared last week that 2024 will indeed be the hottest year on record. The UN’s weather experts at the COP29 summit in Baku emphasize that global temperatures have already risen by 1.3 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial average, a milestone that comes with a host of devastating consequences. The world is witnessing unprecedented sea surface temperatures, rapid ice cap melting, severe droughts, and catastrophic flooding, as recently seen in Spain.
The impact of this accelerating climate change is far-reaching and increasingly severe. “I think that people are not prepared for events of that nature,” explained Saulo, highlighting the urgent need for effective disaster preparedness strategies. “There is a terrible challenge in how to put together protocols that allow people to prepare and react appropriately for the intensity of the phenomena that we are facing.”
As the COP29 Summit unfolds, climate experts and attendees agree that the outlook is grim. While greenhouse gas emissions may be declining in some regions like Europe, they are still rising globally. The stark reality is that CO2 emissions, regardless of their source, contribute to the same outcome: a thickening blanket of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, leading to ever-higher temperatures and devastating consequences for everyone on Earth.
The challenge before the world’s nations is immense. Delegations from around the globe will gather in Baku to try to forge agreements that limit greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately curb global warming. However, time is running out. The Earth’s temperature is rising, and with it, the urgency for decisive action. The question now is whether humanity can rise to the challenge and avert a climate catastrophe.