Associated Press, Tuesday 13 September 2022
GENEVA (AP) — With weather disasters costing $200 million a day, and irreversible climate catastrophe looming, the world is “heading in the wrong direction,” The United Nations says in a new report that pulls together the latest science on climate change. The World Meteorological Organization said weather-related disasters have increased fivefold over the last 50 years and are killing 115 people per day on average — and the fallout is poised to worsen. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cited the floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Europe, and droughts in China, the Horn of Africa and The United States, and pointed the finger at fossil fuels: “There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction.”
The report cited a 48% chance that global temperature rise compared to pre-industrial times will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next five years, and a 93% chance that one year in the next five will see record heat. It comes amid fresh warnings from scientists that four climate “tipping points” will likely be triggered if that temperature threshold — set in the 2015 Paris climate accord — is passed. The UN report says such “losses and damages” can be limited by timely action to prevent further warming and adapt to the temperature increases that are now inevitable. Questions around compensation for the damage that poor nations suffer as a result of emissions produced by rich countries will play a major role at the upcoming UN climate talks in Egypt in the fall.