Giuliana Miranda
Madrid, Spain (Folhapress) – The concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases has reached the highest level of the last 800,000 years, sea level is rising at a rapid pace, and the last decade has recorded the top ten years in history. The new report by the UN -linked World Meteorological Organization (WMO) features a series of alarming climate data.
According to the document, released on Tuesday night (18), the clear signs of climate change reached new levels in 2024, with some consequences being irreversible by hundreds or even thousands of years.
The report also confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year in the historical series, and was the first to record an average global temperature of more than 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era.
According to the entity’s scientists, the average global temperature by 2024 was approximately 1.55 ° C above the average of 1850 to 1900.
At the presentation of the report, OMM climate services director Chris Hewitt drew attention to the sequence of years with climate records: every year of the last decade they are among the top ten in the historic series.
“If we consider the top ten years ever registered, each of the last ten years is on this list. This has never happened before,” he said.
Another point highlighted by the researchers was the rapid pace of increased ocean temperatures. So far, about 90% of the planet’s warming has been absorbed by the oceans.
By 2023, ocean temperature reached the highest level in 65 years of observational records. From 2005 to 2024, the heating rate of the oceans was more than double the observed from 1960 to 2005.
Increased water temperatures have a number of consequences, ranging from marine ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss to intensification of tropical storms.
Water warming also contributes, among other factors, to the elevation of sea level, which reached a historical record in 2024.
According to the WMO, the sea level elevation rate has more than doubled since the start of satellite records, increasing from 2.1 mm per year from 1993 to 2002 to 4.7 mm per year 2015 to 2024.
Since most megacities in the world are located in coastal areas, the effects of this increase can directly impact the lives and support of millions of people.
Due to the high concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the nature of ongoing heating, this increased water temperatures will persist in the long run. “Climate projections indicate that ocean warming will continue at least until the late 21st century, even in the scenarios of low carbon emissions,” the work explains.
The report also showed that the polar hubcaps continue to melt quickly. At the Arctic, the 18 smaller marine ice extensions have occurred in the last 18 years. In Antarctica, the three smaller ice extensions have been recorded in the last three years.
The year 2024 was marked by a series of extreme climate events that destroyed homes, infrastructure and agricultural lands, leaving a trail of material and social damage. According to OMM, this has resulted in the largest annual number of people displaced since 2008.
In addition to typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes, the year was marked by severe droughts in various regions, intensified by the El Niño climate phenomenon.
Although the temperature record recorded in 2024 was influenced by El Niño, the researchers point out that the main cause of the planet’s warming remains the emission of greenhouse gases.
WMO researchers stressed that the fact that 2024 exceeded the 1.5 ° C barrier of heating compared to pre-industrial levels-which is the preferential goal of the Paris Agreement-does not mean that this limit has been definitively exceeded.
“Although a single year above 1.5 ° C of warming does not mean that the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement are out of reach, this serves as a warning that we are increasing the risks to our lives, economies and the planet,” said Celeste Saul, secretary general of the entity.
According to the report, global long -term global warming is currently estimated between 1.34 ° C and 1.41 ° C, depending on the method of analysis used, compared to the period prior to the Industrial Revolution.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres reacted to the document asking to expand global efforts to limit global warming. “Leaders need to act to make this happen, taking advantage of the benefits of cheap and clean renewable energy for their populations and economies, with new national climate plans planned for this year,” he said.
For Alexandre Prado, WWF-Brazil’s climate change leader, “Brazil, as a great agricultural producer, needs to see this as a warning: climate unpredictability is affecting crops and pressing food inflation.”
“Without a more ambitious and structured climate action, the population’s food security will be increasingly threatened, directly impacting the economy and increasing inequalities,” he said. COP30, the UN climate conference that will be held in Belém in November, says, is “the space to move forward in concrete solutions to face this scenario.”
