Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 49

AsiaElec CLIMATE CHANGE AsiaElec

Extreme weather compounds impact

of COVID-19 on climate change

GLOBAL 2020 is set to be one of the three warmest years January to October. The final 2020 report will be
on record, the World Meteorological Organi- published in March 2021.
zation (WMO) said this week, as the impact of The global mean temperature for January
coronavirus (COVID-19) drives forward the to October 2020 was around 1.2°C above the
relentless march of climate change. 1850-1900 baseline, used as an approximation
2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on of pre-industrial levels. 2020 is very likely to be
record, the WMO said, with the warmest six one of the three warmest years on record glob-
years all having occurred since 2015. ally. Modern temperature records began in 1850.
Ocean heat is at record levels and more than The most notable warmth was observed
80% of the global ocean experienced a marine across northern Asia, particularly the Siberian
heatwave at some time in 2020, with widespread Arctic, where temperatures were more than 5°C
repercussions for marine ecosystems already above average. Siberian heat culminated in late
suffering from more acidic waters due to carbon June, when it reached 38.0 °C at Verkhoyansk on
dioxide (CO2) absorption, according to the pro- the 20th, provisionally the highest known tem-
visional WMO report on the State of the Global perature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle.
Climate in 2020. This fuelled the most active wildfire season in an
The report, which is based on contributions 18-year long data record, as estimated in terms of
of dozens of international organisations and CO2 emissions released from fires.
experts, shows how high-impact events includ- Since the mid-1980s, the Arctic has warmed
ing extreme heat, wildfires and floods, as well as at least twice as fast as the global average, rein-
the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, forcing a long downward trend in summer Arc-
affected millions of people, compounding threats tic sea ice extent which has repercussions on the
to human health and security and economic sta- climate in mid-latitude regions.
bility posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, on average, since early 1993 the
Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, atmos- altimetry-based global mean rate of sea level rise
pheric concentrations of greenhouse gases amounts to 3.3 ± 0.3 mm/yr. The rate has also
(GHGs) continued to rise, committing the quickened over that time. A greater loss of ice
planet to further warming for many generations mass from the ice sheets is the main cause of the
to come because of the long lifetime of CO2 in accelerated rise in the global mean sea level.
the atmosphere, according to the report. Severe flooding affected many millions of
“The average global temperature in 2020 is set people in East Africa and the Sahel, South Asia,
to be about 1.2 °C above the pre-industrial (1850- China and Vietnam.
1900) level. There is at least a one-in-five chance In Africa, Sudan and Kenya were the worst
of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C by 2024,” said hit, with 285 deaths reported in Kenya and 155 in
WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas. Sudan. Lake Victoria rose to record levels in May,
“This year is the fifth anniversary of the Paris and the Niger and Nile rivers reached record lev-
Agreement on Climate Change. We welcome els at Niamey (Niger) and Khartoum (Sudan).
all the recent commitments by governments to Flooding also contributed to an ongoing locust
reduce greenhouse gas emissions because we outbreak.
are currently not on track and more efforts are In South Asia, India experienced one of the
needed.” two wettest monsoon seasons since 1994, August
The year was one marked by extremes, with, was the wettest month on record for Pakistan,
for example, parts of Africa and Southeast Asia and widespread flooding was observed through-
suffering from flooding, causing massive pop- out the region (including Bangladesh, Nepal and
ulation displacement and undermining food Myanmar).
security for millions. In China, persistent high rainfall in the Yang-
“2020 has, unfortunately, been yet another tze River catchment during the monsoon season
extraordinary year for our climate. We saw new also caused severe flooding. Reported economic
extreme temperatures on land, sea and especially losses exceeded $15bn, and at least 279 deaths
in the Arctic. Wildfires consumed vast areas in were reported during the period.
Australia, Siberia, the US West Coast and South Indeed, approximately 10mn people were dis-
America, sending plumes of smoke circumnavi- placed, largely due to hydro-meteorological haz-
gating the globe. We saw a record number of hur- ards and disasters that were recorded during the
ricanes in the Atlantic, including unprecedented first half of 2020, mainly concentrated in South
back-to-back category 4 hurricanes in Central and South-east Asia and the Horn of Africa. In
America in November,” he said. 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has added a fur-
The 2020 provisional State of the Global Cli- ther dimension to human mobility concerns.™
mate report is based on temperature data from

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