The United Nations Secretary-General stated on Wednesday that humans responsible for climate change pose a “threat” to the planet akin to the “asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.”
António Guterres, during a climate speech at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, said, “In the climate case, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the asteroid. We are not just in danger; we are the danger.”
He noted that May 2024 was the hottest month ever recorded worldwide, “marking the twelfth consecutive month” of record temperatures.
He added that “the World Meteorological Organization today indicates that there is an 80% chance that the annual average temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in at least one year of the next five years,” citing recent reports from the World Meteorological Organization and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Dozens of leading researchers warned in a study published Wednesday that the Earth’s temperature rise caused by human activity had reached “unprecedented levels,” while the available time to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius was narrowing.
Scientists noted that “human-induced global warming increased at an unprecedented rate in measurements made using scientific instruments, reaching 0.26 degrees Celsius during the period between 2014-2023.”
These findings, published in the Earth System Science Data journal, are the result of work by about sixty renowned researchers relying on methods of the international governmental body concerned with climate change, climate experts commissioned by the United Nations.
The scientists intend to provide updated data annually to inform participants in the Conference of the Parties negotiations and political discussions, as the current decade is seen as crucial to meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting warming to below two degrees Celsius and, if possible, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
These facts were published as representatives from around the world gathered in Bonn to advance climate negotiations ahead of the twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties scheduled to be held in Baku at the end of the year (November 11-22).
The phenomenon of warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions – primarily from intensive use of fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) – which reached record levels: about 53 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually during the period 2013-2022. Scientists also point to another contributing factor: reduced cooling due to particulate pollution in the air that reflects the sun and allows for the formation of some clouds.
However, the remaining carbon budget is diminishing. It indicates the margin of maneuver, which is the total amount of carbon dioxide that can still be emitted while maintaining a 50% chance of limiting Earth’s warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Despite the record levels recorded, the pace of increase in carbon dioxide emissions has slowed in the current decade compared to the first decade of the twenty-first century. The report expresses “little optimism,” according to lead author Piers Forster of the University of Leeds.
