Alarming, to say the least.
But the United Nations chief, Antonio Guterres, has warned the world’s climate is breaking down – following a bulletin from the European Union’s monitoring body which said 2023 is likely to be the hottest year in human history.
Global temperatures during the Northern Hemisphere summer have been the warmest on record, with heatwaves, droughts and wildfires whipping Asia, including the Philippines, Africa, Europe and North America in the past three months with what climatologists say is a dramatic impact on economies, ecosystems and human health.
The average global temperature in June, July and August was 16.77 degrees Celsius, smashing the previous 2019 record of 16.48C.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a report “The three months that we’ve just had are the warmest in approximately 120,000 years, so effectively human history.”
Back home, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has encouraged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states to motivate developing countries to firm up their climate action commitments.
In his intervention at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, the 65-year-old President noted “the most urgent threat to our progress is the impact of climate change” and added “It is a looming reminder of the injustice of disproportionate impact on our people.”
He said ASEAN, during the upcoming COP28 “must call on developed countries to heighten the implementation of their commitment.”
He was referring tp the United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP28, which will be the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference, from November 30 until December 12, 2023, at the Expo City, Dubai.
Among these pledges are climate finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building, all of which “drive ASEAN’s capabilities to prevent, mitigate, manage and adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Mr. Marcos said the Philippines, being one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, will carry on with international tie-ups aimed at making the region climate-smart and disaster-ready.
“In achieving food security, we must build on cooperation that will harness the transformative potential of our agricultural sector to ensure that food production is responsible and will be of benefit for future generations,” Mr. Marcos said.
The echoes of Guterres warning are reverberating throughout the continents.
“Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash…”our climate is imploding faster than we can cope, with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet.”
Record-high global sea surface temperatures played a major role in stoking heat throughout the summer, with marine heatwaves hitting the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.
Climatologists have said, as they look at the additional heat in the surface ocean, the probability is that 2023 will end up “being the warmest year on record.”
The average global temperature through the first eight months of 2023 is the second-warmest on record: only 0.01C below the benchmark 2016 level.
