Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
The World Meteorological Organisation is releasing today
the state of the global Climate 2023 report.
It confirms that 2023 was the warmest year on record
and that many other records were broken last year.
Today we have with us the Secretary
General of the World Meteorological Organisation,
She will be presenting the context and the
findings specifically the context of this report.
And we have Mr Omar Bado,
who is the chief of climate monitoring at
and he will present the technical findings of the reports.
We have also our technical expert John Kennedy,
the co ordinator of the report who is joining online on Zoom.
I'm honoured to give the floor to UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres to set the stage for this press conference.
Earth is issuing a distress call.
The latest state of the global climate report shows a planet on the brink.
Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.
Sirens are blurring across all major indicators.
saw record heat, record sea levels and record ocean surface temperatures.
Glaciers likely lost more ice than ever before
some records are just chart topping. They are chart busting
and changes are speeding up.
Sea level rises are accelerating, threatening coastal communities.
Antarctic Sea ice was 1 million square kilometres smaller than
the previous record low for the time of year.
That's an area almost 25 times the size of Switzerland.
The impact of all these is stark, brutal and accelerating with a deadly force.
The report from the World Meteorological Organisation
details extreme weather around the world in 2023 and
the trail of destruction left in its wake,
thousands killed, millions displaced, crops failing and vast economic losses.
The impact on sustainable development is devastating.
Every fraction of a degree of global heating impacts the future of life on earth.
This report shows that in 2023 we came perilously close to the global temperature,
°C above pre industrial levels.
The good news is that we can still keep
our planet's long term temperature rise below that limit
and avoid the worst of climate chaos, and we know how to do it
by matching the speed of climate change with
radical climate action that aligns with sustainable development
by accelerating the inevitable end of the fossil fuel age
with the G 20 leaving a just global energy transition
by countries producing national climate plans by 2025 that covered
the whole economy and the line with 1.5 degree limit.
By delivering finance for climate action in developing countries,
including to adapt to extreme weather
by protecting every person on earth
with an early warning system by 2027.
And by putting meaningful resources in the new loss and damage funds,
there's still time to throw out a lifeline to people and planet.
But leaders must step up and act now.
tell us a few words about the context in which this report was written?
Thank you very much and I think that the the words by by the UN secretary General
just start to mention that, uh, I'm pleased
to address you journalists today on the release of the flagship report
of the War Meteorological Organisation on the state of the global climate,
set new records for every single climate indicator
this annual report shows that the climate crisis
is the defining challenge that humanity faces.
It is closely intertwined with inequality crisis
as witnessed by growing food insecurity,
is an existential threat to vulnerable populations
everywhere and particularly in the island states.
heat waves, floods, droughts,
wildfires and intense tropical cyclones undermine
all the sustainable development goals.
They cost many billions of dollars in economic losses each year.
The cost of climate action may seem high,
but the cost of climate inaction is much higher.
The War Meteorological Organisation has issued annual state of
the climate reports for more than 30 years.
average carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by 11%.
The global temperature has soared and is getting closer to the 1.5
°C lower limit of the Paris agreement.
Glacier loss was the largest on record last year.
These are the water towers of the world.
Sea ice depletion in the Antarctica was one
of the major climate facts recorded in 2023.
The scientific knowledge about climate change
has existed for more than five decades,
we missed an entire generation of opportunity.
It is imperative that our actions today are based on the
welfare of future generations rather than short term economic interests.
As secretary general of the World Meteorological Organisation,
I am now sounding the red alert about the state of the climate.
however, a glimmer of hope.
Renewable energy generation is surging
in 2023 clean energy capacity additions increased by almost 50% over 2022.
Weather and climate services will be vital to power the transition to solar,
Early warnings against hazards like tropical
cyclones saved countless lives last year.
The early warnings for all initiative is being rolled
out with an initial focus on 30 priority countries.
Less than half of all countries have proper early warning services.
people are on their own and unprotected.
but they must work for everyone.
WMO is also joining with partners and multilateral development banks
to increase and streamline flows of
climate financing for mitigation and adaptation.
Funding is on the increase but needs to be accelerated.
The WMO community provides the science to inform climate action
that is why one of our priorities is a new global greenhouse gas watch initiative.
climate action is hampered by a lack of capacity.
We need to increase support
for national meteorological and hydrological services
so they can provide information services to meet society's needs.
Our services save lives and livelihoods.
I would like to thank the dozens of
experts and partners who contributed to this report.
They include UN organisations,
national meteorological and hydrological services and regional climate.
services Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr Secretary General.
Now I have the pleasure to give the floor to Omar Badu.
He's the head of climate monitoring at
and we can show the slights.
Um let me first give some quick characteristics of this report.
This report is the 30th edition
of such reports since we started producing this
In this year's edition report,
we had 77 countries contributing to the report
from the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
We had 50 experts around the world contributing to the
report in various aspects of the physical part of this report
and also we have very good collaboration with the United Nations agencies,
especially on impacts and socio
Let me now start working you through the key indicators.
We have heard key messages from UN Secretary General and
Let me give you some technical details to
explain those key messages.
So the key indicators that usually we track is the global temperatures.
impact on the earth system.
So this year, 2023 recorded the hottest year on record
which were computed using the
8050 to 1900 reference period
Sorry, the last nine years since 2015 to 2023
are the warmest year on record.
The decade 2014 to 2023 is the warmest decade on record.
This demonstrates the acceleration
and the continuing of the warming.
As the global climate warms, the ocean also warms
we have the melting of glaciers and ice sheets.
All this contribute to the sea level rise.
The 2023 recorded the highest silver rise ever,
but most importantly to mention today is acceleration of sea level rise.
If in the earlier decade since the measurement of
sea level we had about 2.13 millimetres per year,
the recent decade recorded 4.17 millimetres per year.
So about the double of the sea level rise. This is why we are talking about S
rate acceleration. Next, please.
The next key indicator of the evidence of climate change is the sea ice.
As the temperature of the ocean warms and the air,
the sea ice on pole on both poles in the north Arctic Ocean as well as the Southern Pole
as you can see on the top figure,
the sea ice extent for the Arctic continues to its decline.
It was not a record decline this year, but
the long term trend is still down.
The Antarctic Sea ice is more strongly
highlighted here today. As Professor Saulo
low extent in Antarctic. For four consecutive years now we have
the depletion of the Antarctic Sea ice
2015. We didn't see that kind of phenomenon,
but since 2016 we started recording
the depletion of the Antarctic sea ice.
We don't have yet full scientific information why this happened suddenly,
but the investigation is worth continuing to understand exactly what happened
OK, now we are talking about climate change, which is global. But
what we feel at the regional and national level is extreme event
which are either driven by natural variability
by the effect of climate change.
So the most important extreme events that we refer to generally in our
report are those related to heat or
those related to extreme precipitation because those
which influence the human lives and also the socio economic impact.
So in the map that you have on the screen shows where we recorded
extreme hit during the summer
that you can see is the Northern Hemisphere was
vastly affected by extreme heat.
We remember the summer was very hot in Europe and in many other places,
that led to excess of mortality.
We have some members, but we are still gathering statistics.
We had forest fires, unprecedented
burned forest in Canada, recorded in 2023.
We had also several other extreme events like Japan, like Australia.
Extreme precipitation. When we talk about extreme precipitation, we talk about
associated impact on agricultural food security,
but also flooding, which causes displacement, mortality, etcetera, etcetera.
This map shows where we had extreme precipitation
or extreme deficit of precipitation.
So the brown colour shows where we had droughts and green colour,
where we had excess of precipitation.
It's not worth it to say, for example, that most of Southern America,
North America experienced a very strong, dry, dry episode during 2023.
In addition to that also North Africa, I experienced a long drought.
I am from Morocco, and I can explain to you that
some of the dams have depleted almost to 0% of their capacity,
brought a lot of issues in domestic water and use of that water
and so forth. We had also floods in different parts of the world,
especially uh, in China and, uh, and in New Zealand, which had the,
uh, the worst flooding in in history.
So socio economic impact, as mentioned by prof
Solo, All these extreme events have huge impact, especially in developing and
these developed countries because they are
very vulnerable to such extreme events.
One of the most impact that is
affecting developing these developed countries is agriculture
and for security, because the economy is vastly influenced by agricultural.
So, as you can see in that graph which we thank
for producing this analysis, the
food security was improving since
the measurement of this information.
But until recently, in the last five years since 2019,
we keep recording a worsening of food
security in developing these developed countries.
So this is not exactly linked to climate change or to climate variability.
But what we can see is that climate change and climate variability,
that exacerbate the existing vulnerability in these countries
due to conflict due to many other things.
And also the displacement of population has been largely reported.
Millions of people have been displaced
because of floods and extreme precipitation.
I think I stop here if you have any questions, and then we can answer them.
And now I'm happy to open the floor to
questions first in the room and then questions online.
Uh, thank you. Uh, I'm Antonio Roto from Spanish news.
Uh, I would like to ask if, uh, do
you think there is a change of the assessment that W MS WMO said last year saying that
will probably be even hotter than than last year.
Uh, given that, uh, for example, El Nino is gonna end in the middle of this year,
and there has been a very low temperatures in in winter in Northern hemisphere. So
do you still think this year is gonna be even worse than the last one? Thank you,
Secretary General, please go ahead.
No, Maybe just a comment with respect to El Nino, as you have mentioned quite well,
Nino is weakening. But still, we have El Nino on board.
So the the records up to now and and
the upcoming three months, we respect,
um, temperatures above normal.
most covering mostly part most of the parts of the world. But
uh, we cannot be completely certain about what will happen at the end of 2024.
You know, it's, uh it's too too, too premature. But I would love to.
To hear our expert Omara.
there is always uncertainties about predicting what
will happen in the upcoming year.
Uh, traditionally, if you look back in the statistics, uh,
the following year of El Nino is the warmest year. Uh, so, uh,
this year we had very warm 2023 which precedes what could be the record year.
So this is why we have certain uncertainties about what exactly caused
that very big jump in 2023 global temperature.
In addition, of course, to the climate change,
scientists are looking at other factors in addition to El Nino.
we cannot say definitely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year.
But what I would say there is a high probability
that 2024 will again break the record of 2023.
But let's wait and see. Thank you.
No other question in the room,
Swiss News Agency. Thank you for taking my question.
As Secretary General, you're You're the first, uh, SG from the south and and
When you look at the temperature currently in Rio de Janeiro, where it's, uh,
felt at more than 62 degrees.
beginning of a period where it might be more
difficult for people to live in big cities?
very low altitude, Uh, and maybe, uh um, above all in your region. Thank you.
Thank you very much for that question.
Yes, I'm I'm really concerned about what I heard in Rio de Janeiro.
Still, we need to really,
uh, make sure And, uh, using all our quality controls to to really, uh,
I think it's clear then, uh,
we are having temperatures that are well above what we used to have.
they are not prepared to cope with that.
Their infrastructure is not prepared.
Uh, their homes are not prepared.
that's why uh, we spoke about a red alert. Because we must care for
the people and how they will suffer of these more frequent or more extreme events.
Uh, and as you mentioned the global South
because is more vulnerable because of the lack of infrastructure,
lack of investments, and so on,
is where we should put more emphasis and focus and
move all the resources we have to help them adapt
and mitigate the the risks of these extreme events. Thank you.
A question in the room again, please.
uh, considering the critical role played by China in global climate action,
what are WM OS Expectations of China's efforts in combating the climate change.
Well, certainly the the efforts of
any country, and particularly
the the efforts, uh, from China are
And and we all know that you are committed
not only to to work at the country level, but to support the region
to better adapt to what we have just seen what is happening.
So, uh, I would expect the continued collaboration from China,
uh, not only, uh, in terms of, uh, moving forward science that is needed
better practises that are needed,
but also sharing these practises and good science with, uh, the world.
so that is the continued collaboration is for us
a key factor that we will support Always.
Thank you. We have another question in the room, I think.
Secretary General. Hi. I'm Jamie from Associated Press.
Um, I you mentioned the sort of balance between economics and environment and that,
uh, countries are putting short term interests ahead of longer term concerns.
How do you get that message through?
I mean, you're making this,
but what are you doing aside from this press conference and issuing this report,
both publicly with your visits with the leaders, but also behind the scenes,
whether it be in Copenhagen or elsewhere.
to get that message through that there doesn't always need to be
a conflict between economic interest and environmental interests.
What are you doing? Um, beyond just this report.
Yes, because we actually are doing, uh and this is an action, but of course,
I, I do believe as you mentioned, that is not something against it's It's
uh, I. I cannot imagine any solution
that comes from a single partner,
None from UN. None from any country, individual country,
not from economic sector, any economic sector,
but raising the awareness that we should tackle this all together.
Otherwise we are all lost.
So for me, it's just I would like to highlight that countries are engaged,
but there are still things that are
uh, we need to cope all together for the benefit of the humanity as a whole.
Thank you very much. It's Christiana
with the German press agency.
My question goes to Mr Madu.
You just mentioned, uh, answering a question of my colleague.
That 2024 might well exceed Uh uh, the record that we saw in 2023.
Can you elaborate a little bit on that? So partly it's El Nino. But
do you already now see other signs that are pointing to to that scenario.
Uh, thank you for the question.
If the margin by which 2023
smaller than what we have seen,
I would definitely predict 2024 to break to
you start in the spring of the year and follow in the next
year with the peak in January and then decaying towards May June.
makes the following year warmer than the previous year.
But this year, as I said earlier,
there are some factors that scientists are looking at to explain
the large margin by which this year broke the record.
Is it only El Nino or some other factors? So if next year those factors do not
maybe 2024 will tie the record with 2023 or
we are not sure exactly what would happen.
But, uh, looking at what I have seen in the literature,
the other factors might not seem to be really making big
influence on what recorded in 2023.
This is what I said. I still
have more high probability for 2024 to break the record.
We also already recorded January was
the warmest January on record, so
the records are still being broken.
Um, so this is as you say as you ask, What are the signs?
So we have already signs of going through a
not easy to say whether it will be the record, but at least it will be
among the two warmest year on record. Thank you.
I was wondering if you could say a little bit
more about ocean heat since you singled that out.
As a factor of particular concern, this is less understood than temperatures.
Why is this worrying? And can you talk about the impacts you're seeing?
And will this also continue? Thanks a lot.
The ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface,
and it is a big engine of energy.
Most of the energy accumulated in the earth system
goes actually to the ocean.
80 to 90% of that accumulated energy goes to the ocean. This is why actually,
Ocean has played so far. Very good role in keeping the temperature
not more than what we have recorded today.
So as the ocean warms the
the the ocean also has its life. So we have, uh, species. We have ecosystems.
resistant to such increase in temperature and ocean heat.
Uh, for example, uh, we keep recording uh,
the the area covered by what we call marine heat waves is like what we have on land
keep increasing. And the 2020 is really recorded
between 80% to 90% of the ocean
that was recorded that recorded marine heat waves.
So also, the marine heat waves have a very
strong influence on coral bleaching.
And those are ecosystems that are very
important for fisheries and for marine lives.
So we go into kind of desertification of the ocean
when we have this coral bleaching expanding very widely.
So this is what they can say. Perhaps
if I may add to what our colleague has already mentioned
for me. It's also important to highlight that, uh, it is, um
the the time scale of the oceans is, uh, of course, Uh, not as fast as the atmosphere.
The response is not as fast. So once a change is
is it Would, I would say that is almost irreversible
in time scales that go from centennial to millennial time scales.
So the trend is really very worrying,
and that is because of the characteristics of water.
Uh, that they keep the heat content for more time than the atmosphere.
we are paying more and more attention to what is happening to the oceans.
You have a follow up question,
Professor. I'd like to ask you about finding solutions. You say that it
is a global problem. It should be tackled globally.
do you have solutions? And what kind of amount would be needed in order to
help certain regions to find quicker solutions? As Mr Badu
that you have Africa that is impacted when it doesn't have a lot of
So how do you what kind of plan exists and what kind
of level of financing do you need and the time frame,
I will do my best to provide you all of that information. But
let's start from something uh,
that I would say it's the simplest one has to do with the energy,
how we consume and how we generate energy.
uh, we have the good news that, uh, we are moving fast towards renewables.
That is a solution. And that is particularly a solution for Africa
and for hydro power is huge,
Only 1% of investments on energy go to Africa.
why don't we put the money
change the energy production in Africa
so that we can accelerate
the change towards transition
to green energy, not only for Africa, but for the benefit of the whole world?
So for me, there we have a solution.
Investing in energy transition in Africa could benefit
not only Africa but the whole world.
And that's why I think of global solutions.
It's not about thinking what was will happen
for the benefit of the global community? Energy, for me is a key,
Uh uh, aspect where we could put a lot of emphasis
very good results in a really short time frame.
Thank you very much, sir.
I think we only say the first name for a
Um, I had a question on the the whole sense of reading the report, listening to you,
And I heard the Secretary General saying, You know, we can still
But there is a real sense of despair and the things you just said about the ocean,
for example, where it's going to take hundreds of years, maybe thousands,
to come back to something that was,
uh is there really, like how much hope is there and what can,
As as individual people I I realise that it's companies,
uh, countries that can do the most,
and that what we do as a person is probably not that much, But
is there something we can do just to have the sense that we participate? Thank you.
because that will worsen the situation
so that we cannot allow that.
That's why uh, we can argue whether 1.51 point whatever,
things will become worse.
And that will be our responsibility.
So that where it's where I put the focus on what we can do in terms of,
how to consume less how to care about energy, how to care about our daily, uh, habits.
and of course, in the less developed world, we
we just need to help them.
It's not uh, they they can they need to develop.
They don't have access, sometimes even to water
it's a different level of commitment in terms of what we can expect from a
developed country and and the developing world and less developed world. But
I'm certain that we all have a role to play here.
And the only, uh, result of doing nothing will be being worse.
And that is not possible.
Thank you. We have two people. Ha. Having questions online. Uh, Lisa, please,
Yes. Yes. Uh, it, uh, I. I guess they didn't want me want
you to hear me. It took a while to unmute me.
Now that I've got my voice, I may be nonstop ball. I'm not sure. Anyway.
Uh, Secretary General, I have a couple of questions.
There's sort of variations on questions that my colleagues have already asked,
but I'd like to ask them anyway,
The first one is whether have we reached a tipping point on climate change?
if, uh not what actions must be taken
in order to slow down or stop this process from happening.
And then the second question, it's, uh
uh, It It sort of follows up on what Catherine had to ask you about Africa. Is that
what, um, your outlook for the African continent is?
And what I'm thinking particularly about is that
conflicts, unfortunately, in Africa, and there's a lot of instability,
a lot of unstable countries on the continent,
which could create problems for
for them in order to implement adaptation measures.
kind of prevent the worst impacts of climate change from happening
on the continent? I know you. You just mentioned,
uh, you know, green energy and so forth would be a great thing for them to do.
And they do have the sun. However, I think it go. Adaptation goes beyond that.
Ok about tipping points. Uh, we do have, uh, uh,
many reports from our experts, uh, IPCC and, uh,
several papers speaking about the tipping points.
Uh, it seems that, uh, regardless of how we can move, uh, towards net zero,
experience something like a tipping point. And and that is, uh, well explained.
there is no choice but go to net zero
that that's it. And then we will see what climate brings.
It's not about well speculating what the climate will do. It's about us again.
not speculating about the
the impact of the tipping point.
We have to go to net zero.
And in terms of Africa, uh,
you mentioned something that is quite interesting and is also,
uh, in a way, covered in our report.
And it's that climate crisis even worsens
the the human crisis and the and the political tensions. So
climate is also a driver of conflicts
again, it's extremely complex problem. And of course, energy is is not enough.
You are completely certain about that,
Uh, as, uh, any, uh, complex problem with social dimensions, economic dimensions,
natural dimensions, biodiversity implications.
coming from the WMO, uh uh, trying to find out which is the the best approach.
energy is not enough. You are completely certain about this, but,
helping them to adapt as much as they can under the situation they have to leave
drive even more conflicts.
And that is already proved that climate is a driver of conflicts
and is a driver for migrations. And these migrations sometimes are completely,
uh, out of our control. And we cannot help that people that is moving
because they are desperate because they cannot provide food to,
we have to help them adapt.
And the only way that the WMO can assist very effectively in this way is
through the early warnings on the one hand
and providing better climate services to really,
understand how to adapt to different situations
and how you can adapt your productivity,
your habits, your agriculture or your fisheries to a new scenario.
Thank you. And the last question online from Maya plants.
Yes, thank you very much for taking my question.
from the UN brief Secretary General, What a pleasure to see you.
My question is related to the financial institutions.
How is WMO working with financial institutions
on mitigation and adaptation with development banks?
How is WMO collaborating,
advising international financial mechanisms in order for them
to incorporate your findings in their policies.
Thank you very much, Maya, for that question,
Uh, in fact, I, I had a meeting, Um, at the beginning of this year, uh,
one of my first official missions, uh, was, uh, to
and also to meet the World Bank.
And I DB also because I I think that we have to work hand by hand with, um, all the
um have mechanisms in place that are faster and
go straight into the needs of the countries.
Nowadays, uh, we are discussing
and the summit of the future will
concentrate also in discussing this financial architecture,
I think that there are many things to improve there.
I will not go into those details because they are out of the realm of the double MO.
But what is important for us is that this resource mobilisation is fast, effective,
and the accountability and transparency is respected, Of course.
So we are working straight with all the development agencies,
including the Adaptation Fund, the Green Climate Fund,
for example, early warnings for all at the country level,
but something that it's, uh, very relevant in your question.
is This should also be accompanied by
an engagement of each country.
uh, yes, mobilise resources. If the country is not engaged
in asking for that support from the development agencies,
we need the countries engaged in prioritising the
development of climate services of early warning systems.
And then we can support them
in accessing to that finance.
as there are no more questions just to tell you that the remarks of Professor Solo
that were done at the beginning of this
press conference will be available on the TRELLO board
together with the slides as well.
So if you want to refer to it, we will bring them to the trello board.
Also. Please note that this week we will celebrate the World Meteorological Day.
It will be celebrated on Thursday. The 21st there will be a ceremony in W.
which is next Saturday. And at this occasion we will launch a joint campaign,
a climate action campaign together with
DP, and you probably got some information about it
So a dedicated press release will also be sent out tomorrow about
WMD day and this campaign.
So thank you very much, everyone, for being here and have a good end of day
