On track for hottest eight years recorded

The past eight years are on track to be the hottest on record – bringing ever more dramatic and deadly impacts of climate change, the UN has said.

Sea level rise is accelerating, the melting of Europe’s Alpine glaciers shattered records and devastating floods, drought and heatwaves hit in 2022, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.

As the latest international climate talks, COP27, kick off in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the UN’s weather and climate body released its annual state of the global climate report with yet another warning that the target to limit temperature rises to 1.5C was “barely within reach”.

Countries agreed under the Paris climate treaty in 2015 to curb warming to “well below” 2C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, but a lack of action has led to warnings that the 1.5C goal is slipping away.

The global average temperature in 2022 is estimated to be about 1.15C above levels seen in the 1850-1900 period, the WMO said.