Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released their 2022 Global Temperatures Update report, which found that 2022 was either the fifth or sixth hottest year on record and the world has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The average rate of warming is currently 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. The scientists from NASA and NOAA noted that they expect the world to continue to warm in 2023 and 2024, with the latter expected to be the warmest year ever recorded.
At the November 2022 UN Climate Negotiations (COP27), countries agreed to a dedicated Loss and Damage fund to help the most vulnerable countries cope with the adverse impacts of climate change for the first time, yet negotiators could not agree on language to phase down oil and gas use globally. Later today, the United Arab Emirates is expected to announce the head of its national oil company as the president of COP28.
In its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reaffirmed that the world must stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis -- including public health, displacement, food, and water insecurity -- remaining below 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible, but only if the world, specifically the world’s largest polluters, reduces carbon emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and halts all carbon pollution by the early 2050s. The report found that the current policies of the world’s largest polluters will only marginally reduce carbon emissions by the end of the decade, despite the science confirming this will lock us into at least 1.5 degrees of warming.
In response, Cherelle Blazer, the Senior Director of the Sierra Club’s International Climate and Policy Campaign, issued the following statement:
“Again and again, the world’s foremost scientists and experts are telling us that our planet is warming at an unprecedented rate and that the threat to our communities, homes, and lives will worsen without immediate action. Years-long droughts, deadly heatwaves, historic floods, superstorms, increased food insecurity, and record displacement are the daily reality for billions of people around the world.
“We have the tools and the scientific evidence we need to halt climate catastrophe, yet all too often we’re still seeing business continuing as usual. At COP27, world leaders agreed to fund Loss and Damage for the first time, but less than two months later, we’re now hearing that the president of COP28 will likely be an oil company executive. Enough is enough. We are at a point in the climate crisis where we must do the hard but necessary work to secure a livable planet for all. Anything less is risking the lives and livelihoods of billions of people around the world.”
