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Context

• The world's glaciers melted at dramatic speed last year and saving them is effectively a lost cause- United Nations Report.

Findings of the Report

• The last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded, while concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide hit new peaks.
• Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts.
• Sea levels are also at a record high, having risen by an average of 4.62 millimetres per year between 2013 and 2022 -- double the annual rate between 1993 and 2002.
• Record high temperatures were also recorded in the oceans -- where around 90 percent of the heat trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases ends up.
• The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 -- and 1.5C if possible.
• The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15C above the 1850-1900 average.
• Record global mean temperatures over the past eight years came despite the cooling impact of a drawn-out La Nina weather phenomenon that stretched over nearly half that period.
• The report said greenhouse gas concentrations reached new highs in 2021. The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 415.7 parts per million globally, or 149 percent of the pre-industrial (1750) level, while methane reached 262 percent and nitrous oxide hit 124 percent.
• The world's 40-odd reference glaciers -- those for which long-term observations exist -- saw an average thickness loss of more than 1.3 metres between October 2021 and October 2022 -- a loss much larger than the average over the last decade.
• The cumulative thickness loss since 1970 amounts to almost 30 metres.

Silver Lining

• To battle climate change are becoming more affordable, with green energy becoming cheaper than fossil fuels, while the world is developing better mitigation methods.
• The planet is no longer heading towards 3-5 C warming, as forecast in 2014, but was now on track for 2.5-3 C warming.
• In the best case, we would still be able to reach 1.5 C warming, which would be best for the welfare of mankind, the biosphere and the global economy.
• 32 countries had reduced their emissions and their economies still grew.
• There is no more automatic link between economic growth and emissions growth.
• In stark contrast to the world leaders of 10 years ago, now "practically all of them are talking about climate change as a serious problem and countries have started acting".

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/un-reports-off-the-charts-melting-of-glaciers-3971418

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