Scary climate stats revealed

LONDON: Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea levels, ocean heat and ocean acidification all hit new records last year in what the UN said was a “litany of humanity’s failure to tackle climate disruption”.

The past seven years have been the warmest ever, according to the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) annual State of the Climate report.

It warned climate change was compounding with the impacts of war and the pandemic to “undermine decades of progress towards improving food security globally”, with a growing number of countries at risk of famine.

Extreme weather events were causing significant economic damage, the WMO said, pointing to drought in the Horn of Africa, flooding in South Africa and extreme heat in India and Pakistan.

The concentration of carbon dioxide reached 413.2 parts per million (ppm) globally, or 149 per cent of the pre-industrial level. The level continued to rise this year, reaching 420.23 ppm last month. Average sea levels reached a new record in 2021 after increasing at an average 4.5mm a year from 2013-2021 – more than double the rate between 1993 and 2002.