Scientists point out warning signs of worsening climate change

From carbon pollution to sealevel rise to global heating the pace and level of key climate change indicators are all in uncharted territory more than 60 top scientists warned ThursdayGreenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and deforestation hit a new high in 2024 and averaged over the last decade a record 536 billion tonnes per year that is 100000 tonnes per minute of CO2 or its equivalent in other gases they reported in a peerreviewed updateEarths surface temperature last year breached 15 degrees Celsius for the first time and the additional CO2 humanity can emit with a twothirds chance of staying under that threshold longterm our 15C carbon budget will be exhausted in a couple of years they calculatedInvestment in clean energy outpaced investment in oil gas and coal last year twotoone but fossil fuels account for more than 80 percent of global energy consumption and growth in renewables still lags behind new demandIncluded in the 2015 Paris climate treaty as an aspirational goal the 15C limit has since been validated by science as necessary for avoiding a catastrophically climateaddled worldThe hard cap on warming to which nearly 200 nations agreed was well below two degrees commonly interpreted to mean 17C to 18CWe are already in crunch time for these higher levels of warmingcoauthor Joeri Rogelj a professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London told journalists in a briefingThe next three or four decades is pretty much the timeline over which we expect a peak in warming to happen The wrong direction No less alarming than record heat and carbon emissions is the gathering pace at which these and other climate indicators are shifting according to the study published in Earth System Science DataHumaninduced warming increased over the last decade at a rate unprecedented in the instrumental record and well above the 20102019 average registered in the UNs most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC report in 2021The new findings led by the same scientists using essentially the same methods are intended as an authoritative albeit unofficial update of the benchmark IPCC reports underpinning global climate diplomacyThey should be taken as a reality check by policymakers the authors suggestedI tend to be an optimistic person said lead author Piers Forster head of the University of Leeds Priestley Centre for Climate FuturesBut if you look at this years update things are all moving in the wrong directionThe rate at which sea levels have shot up in recent years is also alarming the scientists saidAfter creeping up on average well under two millimetres per year from 1901 to 2018 global oceans have risen 43 mm annually since 2019 What happens next An increase in the ocean watermark of 23 centimetres the width of a lettersized sheet of paper over the last 125 years has been enough to imperil many small island states and hugely amplify the destructive power of storm surges worldwideAn additional 20 centimetres of sea level rise by 2050 would cause one trillion dollars in flood damage annually in the worlds 136 largest coastal cities earlier research has shownAnother indicator underlying all the changes in the climate system is Earths socalled energy imbalance the difference between the amount of solar energy entering the atmosphere and the smaller amount leaving itSo far 91 percent of humancaused warming has been absorbed by oceans sparing life on landBut the planets energy imbalance has nearly doubled in the last 20 years and scientists do not know how long oceans will continue to massively soak up this excess heatDire future climate impacts worse than what the world has already experienced are already baked in over the next decade or twoBut beyond that the future is in our hands the scientists made clearWe will rapidly reach a level of global warming of 15C but what happens next depends on the choices which will be made said coauthor and former IPCC cochair Valerie MassonDelmotteThe Paris Agreements 15C target allows for the possibility of ratcheting down global temperatures below that threshold before centurys endThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever