The warming continues

It seems the lockdowns in 2020 were not enough to slow the Earth’s warming. The reduced greenhouse gas emissions hardly made a dent. The year 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) of the U.S. National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA). Last year’s globally averaged temperature was 1.02 Degrees Celsius warmer than the baseline 1951-1980 mean. NASA’s analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from more than 26,000 weather stations and thousands of ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also said that the year 2020 was one of the three warmest on record and rivaled 2016 for the top spot. The WMO uses datasets developed and maintained by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA’s GISS, and the United Kingdom’s Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. The WMO also uses reanalysis datasets from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts and its Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the Japan Meteorological Agency.

These scientific measurements don’t lie. It’s going to be hotter in the future unless something is done today. Temperatures are on the upward trend. The GISS said that the last seven years have been the warmest seven years on record. All five datasets surveyed by WMO concur that that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, in a persistent longterm climate change trend. The warmest six years have all been since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 being the top three.

The world’s hope of slowing down the Earth’s warming is pinned on the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties in Paris on December 12, 2015 and entered into force on November 4, 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

The Paris Agreement requires all countries and territories to come up with “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and report their progress regularly. NDC’s are the efforts by each signatory to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The Paris accord suffered a major set-back with the withdrawal of the United States on June 1, 2017. The U.S. is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China. President Trump justified his action saying the Paris Agreement will undermine U.S. economy and puts the U.S. at a permanent disadvantage. He added that the withdrawal would be in accordance with his America First policy.

Upon the assumption of Joe Biden in office, one of his first executive orders is to initiate the rejoining of the U.S. in the Paris Climate Change Agreement and issued a sweeping order tackling climate change. UN Secretary-General António Guterres and climate advocates welcomed this move.