The world’s oceans thrived to their warmest and most acidic degrees last year, as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday. In contrast, the United Nations officials instructed that war in Ukraine has threatened global climate commitments.
Oceans witnessed the most striking extremes as the WMO detailed a range of turmoil wrought by climate alteration in its annual “State of the Global Climate” report. It explained that the melting ice sheets had helped lift sea levels to new heights in 2021.
“Our climate is changing before our eyes. In a statement, the heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come,” announced WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
Taalas told reporters there was scant airtime for climate challenges as other crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine, grabbed headlines.
Selwin Hart, thevU.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s special adviser on climate action, has criticized countries that are abnegating on climate commitments due to the conflict, which has raised energy prices and provoked European nations to seek to replace Russia as an energy supplier.
“We are … seeing many choices being made by many major economies which, quite frankly, have the potential to lock in a high-carbon, high-polluting future and will place our climate goals at risk,” Hart warned the reporters.
