'Great Concern': World Meteorology Agency Reports Bad Climate Tidings

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

People pass through a section of the road damaged earlier this month by Cyclone Idai in Nhamatanda in Mozambique. Credit: AP

World Meteorological Organization 2018 State of the Global Climate Key points: 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record 2015–2018 were the four warmest years on record as the long-term warming trend continues Ocean heat content is at a record high and global mean sea level continues to rise Artic and Antarctic sea-ice extent is well below average Extreme weather had an impact on lives and sustainable development on every continent Average global temperature reached approximately 1°C above pre-industrial levels We are not on track to meet climate change targets and rein in temperature increases

The world's ocean heat content reached a record high last year and extreme weather events affected the lives of about 62 million people, displacing more than two million of them, the World Meteorological Organisation said.The agency's annual State of the Global Climate report, launched at the United Nations in New York on Thursday, reported a slew of impacts attributed to climate change, including the melting of 3600 cubic kilometres of Greenland ice since 2002.
Last year was the world's fourth hottest on record based on surface temperatures, with each of the years between 2015 and 2018 among the four hottest years since standardised records began more than a century ago.
“The data released in this report give cause for great concern," Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, said in a statement, noting average surface temperatures are about 1 degree above the pre-industrial level. “There is no longer any time for delay [on action to curb greenhouse gas emissions].”
A measure of the build-up of warming in the biosphere -  as those gases trap more of the sun's radiation - is the record ocean heat levels for a second year in a row.
As the waters warm, the oceans are also expanding, lifting sea levels at an accelerating rate. Adding in the effect of melting ice sheets and glaciers, the global mean sea level last year reached a record 3.7 millimetres in 2018. That pace was quicker than the average 3.15mm annual increase during the 1993-2018 period.
For Australia, 2018 was the third hottest year on record for data going back to 1910. For day-time temperatures, last year was the second hottest, the Bureau of Meteorology said in January. 
The heat has continued into 2019, with Australia's summer the hottest on record by a substantial margin, particularly for maximum temperatures.

Australia's summer maximum temperature anomalies

Compared with the 1961-90 baseline

Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Much of the WMO report looks at the impact of extreme weather events, particularly for developing nations.
It noted that food security was undermined in many places, with world hunger resuming its climb "after a prolonged decline".
Up to September last year, more than two million people had been displaced by disasters "linked to weather and climate events", with drought, flood and storms including cyclones leading culprits.
Heatwaves were also raising "alarm bells for the public health community" as they are expected to worsen in intensity, duration and frequency as the planet continues to warm.
"Between 2000 and 2016, the number of people exposed to heatwaves was estimated to have increased by around 125 million, as the average length of individual heatwaves was 0.37 days longer, compared to the period between 1986 and 2008," the report said. "In 2015 alone, a record 175 million people were exposed to 627 heatwaves."

Firefighters work on a wildfire on Winter Hill near Bolton, England in June 2018. Credit: PA via AP

Last year, 281 weather and climate events recorded by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters affected almost 62 million people. Of those, floods topped the peril list, affecting 35 million people.
The impacts were not restricted to poorer nations, though, with the US alone reporting 14 "billion dollar disasters" last year.
Major storms also included super typhoon Mangkhut, that affected more than 2.4 million people and killed at least 134 people, mainly in the Philippines, the report said.

Links

• WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018
• 'Peak coal in sight' as new power stations drop and retirements jump
• New UN Global Climate report ‘another strong wake-up call’ over global warming: Guterres
• Climate change: Global impacts 'accelerating' - WMO
• Experts demand action after 'staggering' climate report
• Extreme weather affected 62 million people last year, UN climate change report says