Past eight years on track to be warmest on record, says WMO.

ISLAMABAD -- The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says the past eight years are on track to be the warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat.

Provisional estimates of 'State of the Global Climate in 2022' report, released on Monday in Sharm El-Sheikh during COP27, says extreme heatwaves, drought and devastating flooding have affected millions and cost billions this year.

The global average temperature in 2022 is estimated to be about 1.15 [1.02 to 1.28] degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average. The years 2015 to 2022 are likely to be the eight warmest ones on record. La Nina conditions have dominated since late 2020 and are expected to continue until the end of 2022.

Continuing La Nina has kept global temperatures relatively low for the past two years, albeit higher than the last significant La Nina in 2011, the report says.

Report says heatwaves, drought, floods have affected millions, cost billions this year

WMO Secretary General Prof Petteri Taalas said that 'the greater the warming, the worse the impacts. We have such high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now that the lower 1.5AdegC of the Paris Agreement is barely within reach'.

'It's already too late for many glaciers and the melting will continue for hundreds if not thousands of years, with major implications for water security. The rate of sea level rise has doubled in the past 30 years. Although we still measure this in terms of millimetres per year, it adds up to half to one meter per century and that is a long-term and major threat to many millions of coastal dwellers and low-lying states,' he said.

'All too often, those least responsible for climate change suffer most - as we have seen with the terrible flooding in Pakistan and deadly, long-running drought in the Horn of Africa. But even well-prepared societies this year have been ravaged by extremes - as seen by the protracted heat waves and drought in large parts of Europe and southern China,' said Prof Taalas.

Record breaking rain in July and August led to extensive flooding in Pakistan. The flooding came...