BAKU: Days after predicting that the year 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) here on Monday, the first day of the UN climate conference (CO), came out with a stark warning: Jan-Sept global mean surface air temperature temporarily has already crossed Paris Agreement threshold of warming by recording 1.54 degree celsius above the pre-industrial average (1850-1900).
The State of Climate 2024 report released on the sidelines of CO — which began on a somber note — said greenhouse gases (GHG) reached record observed levels last year; the global mean temperature likely exceeded “anything recorded before”, and often by a wide margin, for 16 consecutive months (June 2023 to Sept 2024); and 2015-2024 will be the warmest ten years on record.
The report is meant to serve as a ‘Red Alert’ for participants from over 190 countries who assembled here amid growing concerns about the US’ possible exit from Paris Agreement once Donald Trump takes charge in Jan — a proposition which is expected to deal a big dent to global efforts towards not only mitigation efforts but also towards committing anything significant on new post-2025 climate finance without the US.
CO on its first day saw some disputes over adoption of the agenda where Basic group of countries (Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) insisted on consideration of a new agenda item on climate-change related unilateral restrictive trade measures such as EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Adoption of this agenda item was opposed by the developed countries.
Flagging the global average temperature rise, the WMO, however, noted that one or more individual years exceeding 1.5 degree C does not necessarily mean that “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial levels” as stated in the Paris Agreement is out of reach. “The exceedance of warming levels referred to in the Paris Agreement should be understood as a rise over an extended period, typically decades or longer, although the Agreement itself does not provide a specific definition,” it said.
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