The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
WMO Press conference 21 April 2023
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39:04
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MP4
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1.2 GB
STORY: State of the Global Climate in 2022 - WMO
TRT: 03’31”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
RELEASE DATE: 21 April 2023
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: UN flag alley UN Geneva.
- Wide shot of podium and speakers, conference room, Palais des Nations, Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “We have again broken a new record in ocean heat; heat content which is, for example, giving more energy for tropical storms, cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons.”
- Medium shot, cameramen with tripods and equipment
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “We have doubled the sea level rise during the past 20 years. We used to have a 2.3 mm per year sea level rise twenty years ago, and now we have seen an increase of 4.6mm per year. That increase is very much coming from the melting of major glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.”
- Wide shot: speakers, with monitor in the background
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Unfortunately, these negative trends in weather patterns and all of these parameters, may continue until 2060 independent of our success in climate mitigation. We have already emitted so much, especially carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that this phasing out of negative trends will take several decades. As I said, we have already lost this 'melting of glaciers' game and 'sea level rise' game.”
- Wide shot: journalists with monitors and speakers visible with the UN logo in the background
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “Melting of the glaciers continue and there has been a four-time increase of the melting of glaciers since the 1970s and here in Switzerland we lost 6.2 per cent of the glacier mass last summer because of the heatwave, which is a new record.”
- Close-up, video camera viewfinder with speakers in the background
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): "Last summer, the heatwave here in Europe, led to casualties of about 15,000 people- who died because of the heat wave and poor air quality. In China, last summer was the hottest summer ever and it was also the second driest summer that they have observed. They also reached record-low level of water in their main river called Yangtze.”
- Wide shot: journalists
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “We have started seeing the increase of food insecurity again. There have been more than 20 million people affected in the horn of Africa, 28 million in Latin America and Caribbean, 19 million in Afghanistan and 7 million in South Sudan.”
- Close-up: journalist, podium and speakers visible in the background
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO): “The governments have realized that there is a problem called climate change and they can see it with their own eyes. The proof of scientific facts is now very clear. What has also been happening during the past few years is that the private sector has started acting. So, a growing number of companies worldwide are interested in climate mitigation and being part of the solution.”
- Wide shot: cameraperson filming the speakers, with journalists and technicians in the background
- Medium shot: journalists in the press room
- Medium shot: photographer with camera, monitor in the background
Droughts, floods and heatwaves affected communities on every continent and cost many billions of dollars as climate change continued its advance in 2022.
This is one of the key findings of the annual flagship report “State of the Global Climate” launched today by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at the United Nations in Geneva.
“We have again broken a new record in ocean heat, heat content which is, for example, giving more energy for tropical storms, cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons,” said WMO Secretary-General, Professor Petteri Taalas.
The “State of the Global climate 2022” report is released in advance of Earth Day on 22 April. It reports on climate change indicators such as temperature, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, sea ice and glaciers but also on extreme weather.
“We have doubled the sea level rise during the past 20 years”, reported WMO’s Professor Taalas. “We used to have a 2.3 mm per year sea level rise twenty years ago, and now we have seen an increase of 4.6mm per year. That increase is very much coming from the melting of major glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.”
The European Alps smashed records for glacier melt due to a combination of little winter snow, an intrusion of Sahara dust in March 2022 and heatwaves between May and early September.
“Melting of the glaciers continue and there has been a four-time increase of the melting of glaciers since the 1970s and here in Switzerland we lost 6.2 per cent of the glacier mass last summer because of the heatwave, which is a new record,” said Professor Taalas.
WMO’s new figures show that global temperatures have continued to rise, making the years 2015 to 2022 the eight warmest ever since regular tracking started in 1850 despite three consecutive years of a cooling La Niña climate pattern.
Furthermore, WMO says concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021, which is the latest year for which consolidated data is available, and that there are indications of a continued increase in 2022.
“Unfortunately, these negative trends in weather patterns and all of these parameters, may continue until 2060 independent of our success in climate mitigation”, predicted WMO’s Secretary-General. “We have already emitted so much, especially carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that this phasing out of negative trends will take several decades. As I said, we have already lost this 'melting of glaciers' game and 'sea level rise' game.”
Heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of million, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage, according to WMO’s Secretary- General.
"Last summer, the heatwave here in Europe led to casualties of about 15,000 people who died because of the heat wave and poor air quality”, said Prof. Petteri Taalas. “In China, last summer was the hottest summer ever and it was also the second driest summer that they have observed. They also reached record-low level of water in their main river called Yangtze.”
In addition to climate indicators, the report focuses on impacts. Throughout the year, hazardous climate and weather-related events drove new population displacement and worsened conditions for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement at the beginning of the year, according to the report.
“We have started seeing the increase of food insecurity again,” stressed Professor Taalas. “There have been more than 20 million people affected in the Horn of Africa, 28 million in Latin America and Caribbean, 19 million in Afghanistan and 7 million in South Sudan.”
In Somalia, almost 1,2 million people became internally displaced by the catastrophic impacts of drought on pastoral and farming livelihood and hunger during the year.
Record breaking rainfall in Pakistan in July and August last year killed over 1,700 people, while some 33 million were affected.
The report also puts a spotlight on ecosystems and the environment and show how climate change is affecting recurring events in natura, such as when trees blossom, or birds migrate.
On a positive note, Prof. Petteri Taalas emphasized that “governments have realized that there is a problem called climate change and they can see it with their own eyes.” He added that “the proof of scientific facts is now very clear. What has also been happening during the past few years is that the private sector has started acting. So, a growing number of companies worldwide are interested in climate mitigation and being part of the solution.”
The report points out that that today, improved technology makes the transition to renewable energy cheaper and more accessible than ever.
Dozens of experts contributed to the report, including National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and Global Data and Analysis Centers, as well as Regional Climate Centres, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), the Global Cryosphere Watch and Copernicus Climate Change Service operated by ECMWF.
UN partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (UNESCO-IOC), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) also provided input to the report.
-ends-
Teleprompter
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Bonjour, Madame de Missouri, representing de la Press in the media.
The World Meteorological Organisation is releasing today the State of the Global Climate 2022.
This report shows the status of the key climate indicators like greenhouse gases, temperatures, sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification, sea ice and glaciers.
It also highlights the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.
But there will be also a couple of good news.
Today we have with us Professor Petri Tallas, the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation, who will be presenting the context and the findings of this report.
Professor Tallas, you have the floor.
Thank you Brisit and welcome also on my behalf.
And as you know we are the host agency of IPCC and IPCC just published it's summary for policy makers report.
The last bit of the of the of the 6th assessment report series.
And besides that WMO is publishing annual status of climate report, which is demonstrating where we are with the with the climate change and and disasters.
And in this report that we are publishing today, we have shown what's happening to the key climate parameters.
We have again broken records in the main greenhouse gas concentrations, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, and last year we saw the biggest annual increase of methane concentration so far.
We have seen 1.515° warming since 1850 to 900 and and and we have seen the cooling effect of of Pacific Ocean temperatures because of La Nina and that's why we haven't broken globally the all time ****.
But once we go to the next El Nino, which is likely to happen happen during the latter part of this year and and next year, we may be fairly close to the to the Paris 1.5° low limit at least on temporary basis.
But we have broken several regional records.
For example, United Kingdom was measuring 40° last summer, their all time ****.
And also in Sweden they, they, they, they reached their record so far 37.2°.
And there were also some local records broken in Ireland and and Germany.
We have stored more than 90% of the excess heat that we have brought to the planet, to ocean and and we have again broken new recording ocean heat, heat content, which is for example, giving more energy for the tropical storms, cyclones, hurricanes and and the typhoons.
We have doubled the sea level rise during the past 20 years.
We used to have 2.3 millimetres per year sea level rise 20 years ago and recently we have seen 4.6 millimetres per year increases and that increase is very much coming from the melting of major glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.
We have We also serve as a sink of carbon dioxide and and we have again reached a new record of the acidity of of ocean seawater and that's affecting negatively corals, cells and plankton.
As as, as examples, we have seen a new record low of Antarctic sea ice last February and, and, and this is a new feature.
So far we have been breaking these records into Arctic only.
But also the Antarctic CIS has started shrinking.
Melting of the glaciers continue and and there has been a four time increase of the melting of glaciers since the since the 70s.
And here in Switzerland we lost 6.2% of the of the sea of the glacial mass last summer because of the of the heat wave and which was which is a new new record.
We have seen plenty of extreme weather events worldwide and there has been flooding in in Pakistan, eastern Australia, in Sahara region and also in Brazil and Venezuela.
On the other hand, we have seen route hitting Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Northern Africa, United States, Mexico and also middle and southern part of South America.
And this route in Horn of Africa is has been longest ever and there there's a food crisis which is hitting 20 million people there.
Last summer, the heat wave here in Europe led to casualties of about 15,000 people who who died because of the heat wave and poor air quality.
And in China, last summer was the hottest summer ever and it was also the second driest summer that they have observed.
And they also reached a record low level of water in in their main river called Yangtze.
There was very severe flooding in in Pakistan which affected 30 million people and there were 1700 casualties and about 30 billion U.S.
dollars economic losses and altogether 9% of the country was was flooded.
There was one severe hurricane hitting United States called Iron, which led to 152 casualties and economic losses of the euro of 513 billion U.S.
dollars.
We have started seeing cyclones hitting southeastern part of Africa, which is a new feature and and last spring we had four cyclones hitting Madagascar.
It's led to 214 casualties and and about 570,000 people were affected because of, of that event.
We have seen a positive development in, in, in the under nourishment during the past decade.
But during recent years we have started seeing the increase of, of food insecurity again.
And there have been this more than 20 million people affected in Horn of Africa, 28 million in Latin America and Caribbean, 19,000,000 in Afghanistan and South, 77 million in South Sudan.
And, and then we have seen also displacements because of this week's extreme weather events, 8 million people were forced to leave their homes in Pakistan, 1.1 million in, in, in Bangladesh, 1.2 million in Somalia, half million in Ethiopia and 700,000 in Brazil due to these extreme weather events.
That's in a nutshell, the, the contents of the report.
And now I will show the same same story in, in, in slides.
I have this kind of mathematical and physical education.
And in our field, we are, we are supposed to prove our, our statements by, by showing facts.
And now we'll show them to you.
OK, so, so this this report was a joint venture of of large amount of scientists.
We had 50 scientists from 38 countries and, and, and also regional global institutions and, and, and, and, and there were 20 experts from 7 UN agencies and, and 98 members from WMO 6 regions who are behind this report.
And, and as I said, we have seen this warming continued, but the last three years have been so-called laninaires, which means that we haven't been breaking the all time ****, but, but the last eight years have been the warmest the period of in, in record.
And, and so far we have reached this 1.15° warming and we have broken records in, in three main greenhouse gas concentrations, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
And, and, and the annual increase of methane concentration last year was the highest that we have recorded since 1980.
And out of those carbon dioxide is, is the most important one because of this, it's very long lifetime and it has contributed towards of the, of the warming and, and, and, and it's very much coming from consumption of fossil fuels.
Next, please.
And, and, and then we have seen doubling of the sea level rise and, and, and, and it used to be 2.3 millimetres per year in the past 20 years ago.
And now we have seen 4.6 millimetres sea level rise during the during the recent years.
And the sea level rise game, we have already lost because we have already such a **** concentration of carbon dioxide that that the sea level rise and melting, melting of glaciers, especially these major glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica will continue even for the coming thousands of years.
So that's bad news when it comes to future scenarios.
Next, please.
And ocean heat, we have been measuring the heat content at various depths in the ocean and and globally, we have seen steady increase year by year.
And this is giving more energy for the tropical storms and it's also leading to evaporation of, of, of of water vapour from the ocean, which is boosting the flooding flash flood problems over the over the continents next please.
And, and cryosphere.
This glacier melting has been boosting and you can see see that there's been fairly negative trend.
We are losing more and more of of of glacier mass which is going to be long term ****** for availability of freshwater in main main rivers in Asia, in Europe, in Central Asia and and and North America and South America where we have the biggest, biggest mountain glaciers.
So this is one of the contributors to water challenge that we have we are facing.
And as I said, we have already been, we have studied seeing new feature that the also the Antarctic sea ice has started melting besides the the classical Arctic sea ice melting and and this is a new feature and it's also an indication of of climate change.
Next, please.
And, and, and this Laninia which is calling the Pacific temperatures as, as, as has been persistent for three years already.
And, and, and, and that's why we haven't been breaking the all time global temperature records, but we have been breaking regional temperature records during also during last year.
And these droughts and flooding, we have seen several flooding, flooding events in, in various parts of the world.
And worst of those was the was the flooding in in Pakistan, as I already already mentioned.
But we have also seen drought and, and several of these drought events have been it has to heat waves, as was the case in in in China, in Europe and also in North North America and also central and southern parts of of South America and, and, and in Europe.
We broke all time highs 40° in, in UK, 37.2° in in Sweden and, and also we we broke regional records in Ireland and, and in northern northern part of Germany.
And the five top impact events have been this drought in in Horn of Africa.
Could you go back to the previous one flooding in Pakistan, heat wave waves and drought both in Europe and, and China.
And also this hurricane iron which was hitting, hitting USA and, and, and Cuba.
And this drought in Africa has, has, has, it's a record-breaking one.
We have never seen such a long drought there.
And, and, and this has caused problems for food security, especially in Ethiopia, Kenya and, and Somalia.
And, and it's, it has been woofing the crisis in, in Somalia, which is, which is a country under, under, under unrest or so for other reasons.
Next, please.
And, and this flooding in Pakistan led to 1700 deaths, 30 million people were affected, about 1/3 of the population of the country.
And and there were losses of the order of 30 billion U.S.
dollars and and 9% of the country was, was, was flooded.
And these kind of events, they're becoming more frequent.
We have started seeing more often these kind of stagnant weather conditions where the **** pressure systems are sitting in the same place as was the case here in in in in Europe and China.
Whereas the low pressure areas are moving along the same paths and leading to cases like like we saw in in Pakistan and and in Europe, we got 15,000 casualties because of the of the heat waves.
And we have seen such cases also in 2010 with 50,000 casualties in 2003 with 75,000 casualties.
So the heat waves are also having health implications.
Next please and and and and, and, and this heat wave in China was, was a record-breaking.
It was half degree higher than any any previous summer.
And, and, and it was the second driest summer on record.
And, and, and, and we, we were having lowest level of Yangtze River last August and, and one very severe hurricane was hitting United States and, and Cuba and, and, and, and, and that led to 214 casualties and, and there were 570,000 people affected.
That's actually, that's, that's, that's, that's Madagascar.
So we have seen both Madagascar and, and, and, and and United States hit by tropical storms and, and, and, and what is unusual is this amount of, of cyclones hitting, hitting Madagascar and, and that that that may be a consequence of the warming of those.
And the countries have reported various effects and, and heat waves and, and drought have been the most, most, most common ones.
And, and they have been also also flooding events in the countries and various other disasters.
I don't call the details here next.
And and finally, I would like to say that, that we have seen again increase of the, of the food insecurity because of, of, of, of the impacts of, of climate change.
And, and, and that's, that's bad news because this long term trend was, was more or less positive, but something opposite has happened recently.
And, and also these **** impact weather events that have led to displacements worldwide.
And good news is also what also the most recent IPCC report was, was demonstrating that this climate friendly energy solutions they have their prices have been dropping.
So it's nowadays more attractive to invest in, in wind and solar energy as compared to to fossil energy.
And and also the prices of electric vehicles and batteries have been dropping.
So we have better means to be successful in climate mitigation than than in the in the past.
And finally, WMO has has new initiatives for the future.
One of our major initiatives is early warning services for all, which Secretary Senator Guterres gave us a mandate to prepare a year ago.
And now we are going to do implementation phase where we invest in basic observing systems in early warning service capacities of the countries and also also delivery of the new services for various customers and users like Emergency Management authorities, local farmers, energy authorities, aviation and, and and marine transportation authorities and, and various businesses in the countries.
And, and this is a powerful way to adapt to climate change.
Nowadays, only half of our members have proper early warning services in place.
And, and that's why they're having more casualties and also more economic losses attached to these **** impact weather events.
That's all from my side and now I'm open for your questions or comments.
Thank you very much, Professor Tallas.
So the floor is now open for questions in the room.
First, please raise your hand, give your name and the name of your media, and I will give you the floor.
Anyone in the room?
No one in the room.
So we will start with Yuri.
Yes, thank you and thank you for the briefing.
My name is Yuri Akolev.
I'm the correspondent of Riad Rovesti.
In general, what are the WM OS forecasts for Russia and in particular with regard to permafrost in Siberia?
Thank you.
Thank you.
So these Arctic areas are are warming the most globally and we have seen shrinking of the ice cover in the Arctic and also shrinking of the of the snow cover in the region.
And, and the warming has been more than double the global global average.
Because of this positive feedback caused by melting of snow and ice and, and, and, and we have started seeing also melting of the Burma first, which is has caused problems for infrastructures, for buildings, for roads for, for various infrastructures.
Also these oil and gas pipelines and railroads which are built on on permafrost and, and and the melting of permafrost means that that we are going to see more, potentially more emissions of carbon dioxide emit 8 from those those reasons.
But, and this is one of the risks that we have to follow, but so far we haven't seen major emissions of carbon dioxide nor methane coming from the melting permafrost.
But the potential is there.
And that's an issue that we have to have to follow.
And, and, and this kind of additional burst of, of, of methane and carbon dioxide from those regions would of course boost ori **** concentrations of, of carbon dioxide and also also methane.
But it's a, it's a, it's a challenge in, in Russia, it's a challenge in, in northern Canada and also in, in, in, in Alaska where where many infrastructures are built on, on permafirst.
Thank you.
We have a question from Seth Borenstein from API.
Read it.
We received it by e-mail.
How would you compare 2022 to other recent years of extreme weather?
Was it one of the worst?
And how does it compare to what we will get in 10 to 20 years as the world is warming further?
So, so we have seen this, this negative trend in weather patterns continued and, and, and, and, and, and it was a bit unusual to see these heat waves heating, heating many important areas in Northern Northern Hemisphere and, and all of the indicators they were negative and, and, and the record that we broke was for example, this annual increase of methane, methane concentration.
And unfortunately this negative trend in weather patterns and all of these parameters may continue until 2000 sixties independent of our success in, in climate mitigation.
We have already emitted so much of especially carbon dioxide with the atmosphere that, that is kind of phasing out of the, of the negative trend takes several, several decades.
And as I said, we have already lost this, this melting of Glazier's game and, and sea level rise game.
So, so that's, that's bad news.
And, and, and according to IPCC, the conservative estimate of sea level rise is half metre to 1 metre per per per century.
But there's, there are some studies published by NASA, for example, where, where they estimated there's a potential for speedier melting of Antarctic glacier once water intrudes under the under the glacier.
And, and that would in the worst case lead to up to 10 metres of sea level rise by 2300.
And that would be of course, a major disaster worldwide because many of the big cities and, and population densities, they're very ****, **** in the coastal areas.
And of course we have island States and, and, and and, and low lying states like the Netherlands and Bangladesh which, which, which would face this more, but, but that would be a global disaster.
And, and, and again it it would be, it should be and and could be one of the motivators of more, more more ambitious means to mitigate climate change.
Thank you, Jeremy.
Launch Radio France.
Thank you.
Don't think of a report more gloomy than this one, even if we we know some of those years since the last IPCC report is something new.
But I was wondering, you mentioned at the beginning that you had some good news though, but it seems that the, the, the, the fact that we have more renewable energy and, and the costs that are dropping is a bit, is a bit short.
So I was wondering, I mean, is there any good, more, more good news than just this one?
And, and the second question is, is should we forget about the, the, the word unusual when we talk about climate change now that we know that this thing is happening every year, now we have new records every month every year.
So should we forget the word unusual when we have so, So the good news is, at least from my perspective, I have been following this climate issue since early, early 80s when I studied meteorology and, and, and then climate change was the top record thing in the meteorological community.
And then we started publishing IPCC reports in 1990.
And there was first no reaction with those, those reports.
And, and 10 years later there were attacks against science where the facts were questioned.
And what has happened during the past 10 years is that the governments have realised that there's a problem called climate change and they can see it with their own own eyes and, and, and the proof of scientific facts is now very clear.
And what has also been happening during the past years is that the private sector has started acting.
So growing amount of big companies worldwide, they're interested in, in climate mitigation and, and being part of the solution.
And, and then we have also growing technological means to be successful in climate mitigation.
So there's also reason to be slightly optimistic.
And during the past 15 years, 32 countries have reduced their emissions, whereas their economies have been growing at the same same time.
It's most the European countries, but also United States, Japan and Singapore, for example, have have done so.
And, and at the moment there's a growth in, in build up of renewable energy, solar, wind.
We have also new nuclear energy solutions coming in the on the market.
And most the car manufacturers have have studied manufacturing electric vehicles and, and actually many, many have already said that they will stop production of fossil fuel based vehicles.
So we have growing amount of means to be successful in climate mitigation, but we have to speed up our action to be successful in reaching the Paris 1.5° to 2° targets.
And of course for media, it's maybe a little bit frustrating that we are breaking these records year by year and of course we are moving in the wrong direction.
And this is of course, historically unusual and, and, and, and, and these record-breaking breakings that I was just mentioning, they are also unusual.
But of course the audience have heard about those already.
But but it's important to repeat the message and, and motivate governments and and, and private sector actors and and also ask consumers to to, to to speed up our climate friendly action.
The second part of the question did.
Did you answer to it?
This Whether this is unusual or not, that's sort of what I tried at least.
Christian Rich, thank you.
Brigitte.
Professor, can you enlighten us on what the latest research is on El Nino coming, what are your latest predictions and maybe you can explain a bit El Nino and the changing wind streams in the atmosphere and I wonder when you say irrespective of what we do in the next.
Decades.
This trend is going on until the 20 sixties.
How can we not despair?
Thank you.
Thank you.
First about this El Nino, La Nina variability, which is a natural feature.
So these temperatures of the of the Pacific Ocean vary year by year and, and the last three years have been so-called Lanier years and that's why there's been this cooling, cooling effect.
And, and, and these, these El Nino, La Nina are also, they are also affecting the global weather patterns, especially at the low, low latitudes.
And at the moment we are going towards a linear neutral face.
And the forecast is that we are we are heading towards El Nino doing the latter part of this this year.
And dependent on, on how, how long this El Nino face will last, we may again break our temperature records next year.
If, if this El Nino versus the whole all next year.
And the, the we have already had the previous estimates that there's 50% charge that that we could hit, hit, hit the low limit of Paris Agreement 1.5 on temporary basis and that's the next, next El Nino.
Thank you very much.
If there are no other questions, this press conference will come to an end.
The press.
Yeah, there is.
Yeah.
Christian again.
Sorry, I I was just hoping that we get some words of encouragement.
How can we not despair with this prospect that the trend is going on until the.
60s Thank you, thank you.
So that that's going to happen anyhow.
And, and, and the good news would be that we would be able to face out this negative trend and even reach the the 1.5° limit.
And good news is that that already the richest countries, G7 countries and European Union have fairly ambitious climate mitigation plans.
And, and, and of course, European Union has been one of the drivers.
And at the moment, the US current U.S.
government is also preparing fairly ambitious climate programmes.
So, so this climate friendly solutions will become mainstream.
I'm I'm quite confident of that.
And of course the key issue is what happens with the remaining so-called G20 countries exploring G7 countries altogether.
G20 countries are responsible for 80% of the global emissions and, and it's very important that we get countries like China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Russia on board these, these more ambitious climate, climate policies.
And one should keep in mind that for example, India and China as countries will will also suffer heavily if we fail with the climate mitigation.
These low, low lying areas that they're having their dependence on, on Himalayan glaciers, glacier water and, and, and, and their exposure to the typhoons and cyclones and, and also the fact that they are suffering because of poor equality.
They are all, all indicators that it, it will be it, it should be and could be motivating for those countries to be also to also join this ambitious climate friendly club.
And also this climate friendly technologies is a business opportunity for, for example, for China.
China has already become market leader of the of the solar and wind technology and and also there's going to be growing market for these electric vehicles and and also many other climate friendly technologies.
So it's also a great, great opportunity.
So there's not the reason to be totally pessimistic, but but unfortunately we will see growing negative impacts of of the climate change during the coming decades.
Thank you.
Two more questions have come up.
Lisa Schlein.
Yes, thank you.
Hi, Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
I'd like to know whether the the richer countries are living up to their promises to help the developing countries which are contributing the least to the climate problem that we're having, and yet they are suffering the most.
And you have outlined some of this in your presentation regarding the droughts and the floods, etcetera, which had hit these parts of the world.
So wherein does the optimism lie as far as those countries are concerned?
And of course, if it's not helped there, it's not helped anywhere.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As as part of this Paris agreement, we have this mechanism to to finance climate activities, climate mitigation and also growingly climate adaptation activities in in poorer countries.
And, and, and the promise is that there there should be 100 billion financing on annual basis.
And so far we have been able to reach about 80 billion a year level.
And there, there were promises in some mistake that we would reach, reach this 100 billion a year investment level next year.
So that let's, let's hope that that that happens.
And, and, and, and, and of course, the absolute biggest losses are failed in in richest countries like United States.
But once you divide the, the, the losses with the sizes of the economy, the relative biggest losses are failed in less, less developed countries.
And, and, and we have this loss and damage discussion going on whether, whether the rich countries should pay for the damage that the climate is causing in poorer countries.
And, and the smartest way is to is to avoid those losses.
And, and one powerful way to avoid those losses is to invest in early warning services.
And that's why WMO and, and and few other United Nations agencies are having this early warning services for all programme to enhance the early early warning service skills and preparedness of the countries to to face a growing amount of weather related disasters.
And that programme is now ongoing and, and the aim is that by the end of 27, we would reach 100% coverage of proper early warning services and optimism.
Of course the, the, the coming decades are going to be decades with the negative trends.
But, but if you will be able to reach the Paris 1.5, that would be the best for the welfare of mankind and, and biosphere and also for global economy.
And, and also with two degrees, we would see less damage than as compared to 3°.
The most recent IPCC report was demonstrating what kind of damages we could see if it would reads these higher numbers.
And, and I think that that message should be carefully read and understood.
And, and that's why we should enhance our climate mitigation efforts.
Thank you.
One last question from MFR Reuters.
Thank you.
It was about Switzerland actually.
I'm wondering if you think Switzerland is doing enough on climate change and.
I had in mind.
The fact that they're paying poorer nations to.
Cut.
Emissions on their behalf and also I had in.
Mind the fact.
That there's a new climate law being.
Voted.
On in June.
Thanks.
Yeah, in Switzerland, what happened last summer is the, is that we lost 6.2% of the of the glacier mass, which is the biggest loss so far.
And, and this is this is again striking that with this heat waves, it's not only a matter of temperature, but it's also affecting our availability to, to to get water resources to major rivers.
And, and also it's affecting also the hydropower capacity of the, of the countries.
And many countries have, have prepared climate laws and, and with those laws, we, we are typically committing several future governments to, to, to, to proceed with the climate mitigation efforts.
And that's, that's most welcome development because in democratic countries we have seen variation between government and to, to, to government in their, the ambition level of climate mitigation.
And, and this kind of laws would make what ensure longer term commitments.
And and that's, that's sometimes a challenge in in in democratic countries.
Thank you very much.
If there are no other questions this time, we will come to an end with this press conference.
Just to inform you that the press release is published in all six UN languages and it's available from our website and from the press release you received.
Thank you very much.
If you have more questions or you want to organise interviews, please reach out to Claire Nullis, our Media Officer and have a good end of the day.
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Thank you.