The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report released on Tuesday, March 19, that 2023 was the warmest year on record at a degree which is above the pre-industrial average.
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The report said there is a "high probability” that 2024 will be another record-hot year and warned that the world’s efforts to reverse the trend have been inadequate.
Extreme weather events such as extreme heat and drought, and associated wildfires, major floods, and tropical cyclones might continue to affect the globe, it said.
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The report comes as climate experts and government ministers are to gather in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Thursday and Friday to press for greater climate action, including increased national commitments to fight global warming.
"Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record high observed levels. Ocean heat content reached its highest level in the 65-year observational record,” it revealed.
The agency voiced concerns in its State of the Global Climate report that a crucial climate goal is increasingly in jeopardy, limiting planetary warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
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"Never have we been so close – albeit temporarily at the moment – to the 1.5C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change,” said Celeste Saulo, the agency’s secretary-general. "The WMO community is sounding the red alert to the world.”
The rate of sea level rise in the past ten years (2014–2023) has more than doubled since the first decade of the satellite record (1993–2002).
"Extreme weather continued to lead to severe socio-economic impacts. Extreme heat affected many parts of the world. Heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires, and intense tropical cyclones wreaked havoc on every continent and caused huge socio-economic losses. There were particularly devastating consequences for vulnerable populations who suffer disproportionate impacts,” Saulo stated.
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She said WMO and its members are expanding life-saving early warning services to achieve the ground-breaking Early Warnings For All initiative.
The 12-month period from March 2023 to February 2024 pushed beyond the 1.5-degree limit, averaging 1.56C higher, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
It said the calendar year 2023 was just below 1.5C at 1.48C but a record-breaking start to this year pushed the 12-month average beyond that level.
"Earth’s issuing a distress call,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "The latest State of the Global Climate report shows a planet on the brink. Fossil fuel pollution is sending climate chaos off the charts.
Omar Baddour, WMO’s chief of climate monitoring, said the year after an El Nino event – the cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean that affects global weather patterns – normally tends to be warmer.
WMO said the impact of heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires, and tropical cyclones, exacerbated by climate change, was felt in lives and livelihoods on every continent in 2023.
This week, at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial on March 21-22, climate leaders and ministers from around the world will gather for the first time since COP28 in Dubai to push for accelerated climate action.
Enhancing countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ahead of the February 2025 deadline will be high on the agenda, as will delivering an ambitious agreement on financing at COP29 to turn national plans into action.
There is a glimmer of hope as renewable energy generation has surged primarily driven by the dynamic forces of solar radiation, wind, and the water cycle.
In 2023, renewable capacity additions increased by almost 50 per cent from 2022, for a total of 510 gigawatts (GW) – the highest rate observed in the past two decades.
Parts of Rwanda face above-average temperature
Some parts of Rwanda are experiencing average maximum temperature ranging between 20 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius "which is slightly above the range of long-term average maximum temperature” compared to the same previous period, according to Rwanda Meteorology Agency.
Rwanda’s average temperature is higher than the global average (1.09°C) as shown by the UN-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Abias Maniragaba, a climate expert, said mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and measures to adapt to the effects of climate change needed to be enhanced.
"The only solution is to mitigate global warming gases,” he noted.
Carbon emissions levels are 50 per cent higher than in the pre-industrial era, trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the report.
Under its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or pledges to the Paris Agreement, Rwanda committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 38 per cent by 2030.