2022 'fifth warmest year' on record

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, April 21

Indicating that the world is in a deep climate crisis, the annual report of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) reveals that from mountain peaks to ocean depths, climate change continued its advance in 2022.

The report, “State of the Global Climate-2022”, which was released ahead of World Earth Day, which falls on Saturday, disclosed that droughts, floods and heat waves affected communities on every continent and cost billions of dollars.

“The Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest, and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts,” reads the report.

In 2022, the global mean temperature, which combines near-surface temperature measurements over the land and ocean, was 1.15°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. This makes 2022 the fifth warmest year on record over two centuries (1850-2022). The report by the WMO, an agency of the United Nations, stated that 2016 remained the warmest year on record globally.

Apart from the temperature, the concentration of greenhouse gases, one of the key global climate indicators, reached a record high. The report stated that the concentration of the three main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached a record high in 2021. “The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations shows that the level of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022,” reads the report.

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