U.N. weather body sounds climate alarm days before COP24

According to the report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), global temperatures are on course for a 3-5 degrees Celsius (37.4-41 degrees Fahrenheit) rise this century, far overshooting a global target of limiting the increase to 2C (35.6F) or less.

Scientists say that it is vital to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 Celsius to avert more extreme weather, rising sea levels and the loss of plant and animal species, although limiting the rise to 1.5C (34.7F) would have a far greater benefit.

The last four years are the hottest since records began in the 1850s, WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas told a news conference in Geneva, and with a possible El Nino next year risks being hotter than 2018.

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are at their highest for 3 million years, Taalas said, adding that it can take thousands of years for the gas to disappear.

Unpredictable weather patterns could cause food shortages, exacerbated by population growth, Taalas said, and rising sea levels could threaten coastal settlements in Asia as well as major cities like London and New York.

At the 2015 Paris climate conference, the countries of the world pledged to work to limit the rise to 2C, a step that will require a radical reduction in the use of the fossil fuels that are the primary cause of global warming.

On Sunday (December 2), the most important U.N. climate conference since Paris opens in Katowice, Poland, in one of the most polluted coal-mining regions in Europe.

The talks are intended to produce a "rule book" on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, which the United States, at the behest of President Donald Trump, has announced it will quit.

Success, according to the conference's Polish host, will need a miracle.

Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters