UN World Meteorological Organization #COP23 meet seeks to strengthen Paris Climate Pact

NewsBharati    07-Nov-2017
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Bonn, November 7: “2017 is set to be in top three hottest years” said the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The UN meet is scheduled from November 6 to 17 aims to guide 200 nations regarding climate change and also remind and strengthen the 2015 Paris climate pact. 

This year will be among the three hottest on record in a new sign of man-made climate change that is aggravating “extraordinary weather”, such as hurricanes, droughts and floods, the United Nations (UN) said on Monday.

 
 

And 2017 would be the hottest on record without a natural El Nino event that releases heat from the Pacific Ocean about once every five years, it said further. El Nino boosted global temperatures in both 2015 and 2016.

“We have witnessed extraordinary weather,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement of 2017, pointing to severe hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean, temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius (122°F) in Pakistan, Iran and Oman, monsoon floods in Asia and drought in East Africa.

“Many of these events and detailed scientific studies will determine exactly how many bear the tell-tale sign of climate change caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities,” he said.

The meeting seeks to end the fossil fuel era in the second half of the century by shifting the world economy to cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.

“These findings underline the rising risks to people, economies and the very fabric of life on Earth if we fail to get on track with the aims and ambitions of the Paris agreement,” said Patricia Espinosa, Head of the UN climate change Secretariat.

Further the WMO said average surface temperatures in 2017 were about 1.1C(2.0F) above the pre-industrial era in data from January to September, nearing the most ambitious limit of 1.5C (2.7F) set by the Paris agreement.

Among other extremes, monsoon floods killed 1,200 people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, the WMO said. Severe wildfires, stoked by heat and drought, killed 64 people in Portugal, at least 41 in California and 11 in Chile. A few places had record cold against the overall warming trend, such as -25.4C (-13.7°F) in Bariloche, Argentina, in July.

Among extremes, the WMO pointed to a battering from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. While it said there was no clear evidence whether climate change made hurricanes more frequent, when storms do take place warmer temperatures aggravate downpours, and higher sea levels can worsen storm surges, it said.

 
 
What is this meeting about?
 
The world’s nations are meeting for the 23rd annual “conference of the parties” (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which aims to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”, ie halt global warming. It is taking place in Bonn, Germany from 6-17 November.