2019 was second-hottest year ever, more extreme weather ahead — WMO

GENEVA — Last year was the Earth’s second-hottest since records began, and the world should brace itself for more extreme weather events like the bushfires ravaging much of Australia, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday.

The Geneva-based WMO combined several datasets, including two from the US space administration NASA and the UK Met Office.

These showed that the average global temperature in 2019 was 1.1 degree Celsius (2.0 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, creeping towards a globally agreed limit after which major changes to life on Earth are expected.

“Unfortunately, we expect to see much extreme weather throughout 2020 and the coming decades, fuelled by record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Australia had its hottest, driest year ever — a precursor to the bushfires.

Scientists say climate change is likely to have contributed to severe weather in 2019 such as a heatwave in Europe and the hurricane that killed at least 50 people when it barrelled through the Bahamas in September.

Governments agreed at the 2015 Paris Accord to cap fossil fuel emissions enough to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — after which global warming is expected to be so severe that it will all but wipe out the world’s coral reefs and most Arctic sea ice. —