UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern that humanity is setting the world on fire and paying the price.
The United Nations Meteorological Agency studied six international datasets for the period January-September 2024 for its analysis and highlighted increasing temperature trends.
The report shares information on the development of effective climate services in countries including Seychelles, Mauritius, Laos and Ireland, but the data clearly shows that the climate crisis is rapidly deepening.
October 2024 is the second warmest month after last year’s October. According to UN experts, parallel to this trend of rising temperatures are the disasters caused by them.
Between 2020 and 2024, heat-related risks are emerging as the most dangerous weather risk, accounting for 57 percent of deaths from weather, climate and water-related causes.
Investing in climate services
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said that in the face of unprecedented climate change, the development, communication and use of climate information has never been more important for climate action.
The report titled ‘The State of Climate Services’ describes progress and current challenges in providing critical climate information.
Globally, one-third of essential climate services are now provided by national meteorological and hydrological services, but a large gap remains.
Of the $63 billion allocated to climate adaptation, only four to five billion is spent on supporting climate services and early warning systems.
Secretary General Saulo said that necessary investments must be made for a sustainable future. The cost of no action will be many times greater than the cost of action.
Ambitious goals
Meanwhile, just ahead of the UN’s annual climate summit in Baku, world leaders have called for ambitious climate action on several fronts.
The top UN official said Baku’s leaders need to come up with ambitious plans that take into account the scale and urgency of the current crisis.
Along these lines, he also called for a new national climate action plan, which would set out measures to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.