Climate change is accelerating, and temperatures are getting warmer every year. WMO released the latest report on global climate change at the United Nations COP27 Climate Change Conference. The report mentioned that the temperature continued to rise and heat waves continued after 2015. At the same time, phenomena such as melting glaciers, heavy rains, and rising sea levels continued to intensify.
Taipei, Taiwan (Periodical News) – What has become of our climate? The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently held the United Nations COP27 climate change conference in Egypt, where it released the latest global climate change report. The report mentioned that since 2015, the temperature each year has been higher than before. In addition to continuous heat waves, phenomena such as melting glaciers, heavy rains, and rising sea levels are also intensifying, and the speed of change is faster than before. If we don’t take careful prevention, it will cause severe environmental damage and casualties of animals, plants, and humans.
COP’s full name is “Conference of the Parties” and it is one of the most important climate summits in the world. It’s the highest decision-making meeting of the UNFCCC, and the 197 countries that are contracting parties meet to discuss how to respond to climate change. This meeting is held once a year, and the location varies with the host country. Participants included heads of state, civic groups, and business leaders.
This year the host country is Egypt, and the venue is Sharm El Sheikh on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. Sharm El Sheikh is famous for its beautiful coral reefs and marine ecology. Due to the development of the tourism industry and climate change, the coral reefs in some sea areas have disappeared. Therefore, it is just for the participants to experience the urgent crisis facing the global environment and ecology locally.
Because Egypt is an African country, many environmental protection groups call COP27 “African COP”. They hope that everyone will pay more attention to African countries with small carbon emissions but facing the climate crisis, and put forward the slogan “Together for implementation” and appeal for “Just And Ambitious”.
This report also mentions that the world’s climate is currently in a state of extreme chaos, and it sends out many distress signals that must be paid attention to. One of the most serious problems is global warming. Since the 19th century, the temperature of the earth has risen by more than 1.1 degrees Celsius, especially in these 30 years. Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of WMO believes that the more global temperatures rise, the more serious impact on the world.
Since the water on the surface of the ocean will absorb more than 90% of the accumulated heat of carbon emissions, the rate of warming has accelerated in the past 20 years. In July 2021, a new record was set. The average temperature of land and ocean surfaces is higher than that of the 20th century about 0.93 degrees. The impact of ocean heat waves on marine ecology also affects the food sources of living organisms and the 500 million people who depend on the ocean for their livelihoods. By 2022, more than half of the sea had experienced a heatwave. The melting of ice sheets and glaciers, as well as the multiplied rate of sea level rise in the past 30 years, are threatening biological habitats and tens of millions of residents living in coastal areas.
In this COP27, the issue that has received the most attention and indeed has made breakthroughs is the issue of loss and damage. Affected by climate change, many developing countries have suffered from drought and floods. For example, one-third of Pakistan was submerged this summer, causing serious economic losses. Therefore, it was agreed at the meeting to set up a loss and damage fund to help countries threatened and damaged by extreme weather, get enough financial subsidies to rebuild their homes, and achieve an important step in climate justice.
This meeting also left some issues that still need to be improved, including the $100 billion annual climate financing fund promised by industrial countries in 2009, which has not yet been realized. There has been no progress in reducing emissions, cutting fossil fuels, and carbon reduction. Even though they reaffirmed the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 43% to 45% by 2030 and the expectation of climate warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. But calculations by scientists show that the global temperature is still expected to rise by 2.4 degrees.
Mike Meredith, director of the British Antarctic Survey, believes that the current climate and environment are very dangerous. Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European Commission, expressed concern about the future of the earth. He believed that policies could not keep up with the speed of climate change, and the speed of carbon reduction should be accelerated to protect the earth we live in.
Maybe environmental protection can’t just be a slogan, but must be implemented in daily life and legal social policies, to preserve a better living environment for the creatures living on the earth and our next generation.
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