Accelerating climate change posing major threat to people’s health – Report

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Climate change is having a major effect on all aspects of the environment as well as on the health and the well being of the global population. This is according to a new flagship report on the state of the Global Climate released by the World Meteorological Organization.

The report confirms the information in a provisional statement issued at the UN Climate Change Conference in December that 2019 was the second warmest year on record, and that the period between 2010-2019 was the warmest decade on record.  It adds that since the 1980’s, each successive decade has been warmer than any preceding decade since 1850.

The year 2019 ended with a global average temperature of 1.1°C above estimated pre-industrial levels, second only to the record set in 2016, when a very strong El Niño event contributed to an increased global mean temperature atop the overall warming trend.

The report points out that Greenhouse gas emissions continued to grow in 2019 leading to increased ocean heat and such phenomena as rising sea levels, the altering of ocean currents, melting floating ice shelves, and dramatic changes in marine ecosystems. The ocean has seen increased acidification and deoxygenation, with negative impacts on marine life, and the wellbeing of people who depend on ocean ecosystems.

A recent decadal forecast indicates that a new annual global temperature record is likely in the next five years, said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. “Given that greenhouse gas levels continue to increase; the warming will continue,” he says.

Talaas noted that 2020 has seen the warmest January recorded so far, and that in countries that experience winter, the season was unseasonably mild in many parts of the northern hemisphere.

Sadly, he added, countries still aren’t fulfilling commitments they made at the UN Paris climate conference in 2015, leaving the world currently on course for a four to five-degree temperature increase by the end of this century: “there’s clearly a need for higher ambition levels if we’re serious about climate mitigation”.

2019 also saw an above-average number of tropical cyclones, with 72 in the northern hemisphere, and 27 in the southern hemisphere. Some notably destructive cyclones were Idai, which caused widespread devastation in Mozambique and the east coast of Africa; Dorian, which hit the Bahamas and remained almost stationary for some 24 hours; and Hagibis, which caused severe flooding in Japan.

Unfortunately, such extreme heat conditions are taking an increasing toll on human health and health systems. The report shows that dengue virus increased in 2019, due to higher temperatures, which have been making it easier for mosquitos to transmit the disease over several decades.

Following years of steady decline, hunger is again on the rise, driven by a changing climate and extreme weather events: over 820 million people were affected by hunger in 2018. The countries in the Horn of Africa were particularly affected in 2019, where the the population suffered from climate extremes, displacement, conflict and violence. The region suffered droughts, then unusually heavy rains towards the end of the year, which was a factor in the worst locust outbreak in the past 25 years.

Worldwide, some 6.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to natural hazards – in particular storms and floods, such as the many devastating cyclones, and flooding in Iran, the Philippines and Ethiopia. The report forecasts an internal displacement figure of around 22 million people throughout the whole of 2019, up from 17.2 million in 2018.

Writing in the foreword to the report, UN chief António Guterres warned that the world is currently “way off track meeting either the 1.5°C or 2°C targets that the Paris Agreement calls for”, referring to the commitment made by the international community in 2015, to keep global average temperatures well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

The UN chief called on all countries to demonstrate that emission cuts of 45 per cent from 2010 levels are possible this decade, and that net-zero emissions will be achieved by the middle of the century.

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