Worsening climate

World Meteorological Organization gives a dire warning

The report on the state of global climate by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows record spikes in sea level, ocean acidification, Arctic snow loss, and freakish weather events in 2018. It validates the notion that climate change is outsmarting all efforts to contain it. Worse still, it confirms that the fight against global warming is backsliding on almost all climate markers. The past four years have been the warmest on record, with the average surface temperature in 2018 being nearly 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline. The sea level has risen during the year by a record 3.7 mm, spelling peril for small island nations. The acidity of ocean waters has shot up sharply due to an escalation in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and their absorption by the seas, thus, posing a grave threat to marine biodiversity. The carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, which had touched a peak 405.5 parts per million (ppm) in 2017, is believed to have scaled new highs by now.
 
As if these signs are not ominous enough, the WMO statement goes on to reveal that the incidence of devastating weather bouts, which inflict economic damage in excess of $1 billion, has soared menacingly. The US alone witnessed 14 such events in 2018. The catastrophic deluge in Kerala in August 2018, which caused an economic loss of worth around $4.3 billion, also belonged to this category of weird weather. The state’s rainfall in that month was 96 per cent above normal with a couple of weekly spells pouring more than double the usual rainfall. This WMO report assumes special significance as it has come ahead of the “climate action summit” in September in New York, where the heads of states will review the progress towards attaining the Paris agreement’s coveted goal of limiting temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
 
The WMO findings do not inspire much confidence in fulfilling this aspiration. This is more so because most countries are losing the political will to sacrifice economic development to protect the environment. They are reneging on the self-determined climate action commitments, even if without explicitly saying so. Some, notably the world’s biggest polluter, the US, have gone to the extent of threatening to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Financial contributions to the Global Green Fund, meant to assist poor nations to slash their emissions and go in for climate-resilient development, too, have not been forthcoming. Moreover, the anticipated reduction in the use of environment-vitiating fossil fuels, including coal, does not seem to materialise, though the renewable energy rates have dipped below the power produced from coal and other mineral resources. Even India can ill-afford to forgo the use of coal, regardless of taking significant strides in the renewable energy sector.
 
With such being the ground reality, world leaders need to come up with revamped action plans in the forthcoming climate summit. For vulnerable countries like India, in particular, a prudent course of action would be to build capacity to live with the changed climate by conceiving climate-smart development strategies. Adaptation, indeed, holds the key to withstand climate change.