Fifty scientists warn that record greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution are accelerating global warming at an unprecedented rate.
Steam rises from a cooling tower at a power plant in Boxberg, Germany. Photo: Filip Singer/EPA
According to a new study published in the journal Earth System Science Data by 50 scientists, between 2013 and 2022, human-induced warming increased at a rate of more than 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. During the same period, average annual emissions reached an all-time high of 54 billion tons of CO2, equivalent to approximately 1,700 tons per second, Science Alert reported on June 9th.
The new findings could close the door on limiting global warming to the 1.5°C target of the 2015 Paris Agreement. "We haven't reached the 1.5°C threshold yet, but the carbon budget – the amount of greenhouse gases that humans can emit without exceeding that threshold – could be exhausted in just a few years," said Piers Forster, the study's lead author and professor of physics at the University of Leeds.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that, in order to maintain the temperature targets set in the Paris Agreement, CO2 pollution needs to be reduced by at least 40% by 2030 and eliminated completely by the middle of this century.
But according to new research, one of the climate successes of the past decade has inadvertently accelerated global warming. The reduction in the use of coal – which emits significantly more carbon than oil and gas – for electricity production has slowed the increase in carbon emissions. But this has also reduced air pollution, which shields the Earth from the power of the sun's rays. Particulate pollution reduces warming by about 0.5 degrees Celsius, meaning (at least in the short term) that when cleaner air reaches the Earth's surface, more heat will come.
The new data will serve as a wake-up call ahead of the COP28 conference later this year, even as evidence suggests greenhouse gas emissions have slowed, according to co-author Valerie Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of the 2021 IPCC report. "The speed and scale of climate action are insufficient to limit the escalation of risks," she said.
The research team also reported a dramatic increase in inland temperatures since 2000. Specifically, the average annual peak temperature over the past decade has increased by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius compared to the first decade of the millennium. The study also showed that longer and more intense heatwaves will pose a serious threat in the coming decades to large areas of South and Southeast Asia, as well as many equatorial regions of Africa and Latin America.
Thu Thao (According to Science Alert )
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