UN warns of heat and extreme weather as climate talks get going with the US on the sidelines

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This file photo taken on July 23, 2017 shows children and adults playing in a fountain to cool off during a heatwave in Yangzhou, China's eastern Jiangsu province. The year 2017 is on track to be the hottest year on record. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 1:15am, 7 Nov 2017Updated: 1:28am, 7 Nov 2017

This year will be among the three hottest on record, the United Nations said on Monday, as almost 200 countries started talks in Germany to bolster a global climate accord that the United States plans to quit.

Temperatures this year will be slightly less than during a record-breaking 2016 and roughly level with 2015, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said, part of a long-term warming trend driven by greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

“We have witnessed extraordinary weather,” said Petteri Talaas, head of the WMO, pointing to extreme events including a spate of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean, monsoon floods in Asia and drought in East Africa.

Damage left by a flooded river is seen from the air during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria near Utuado, Puerto Rico. Photo: Reuters

The WMO attributed the small dip from last year to the fading effects of a natural El Nino event that released extra heat from the Pacific Ocean in 2016. In terms of economic costs, 2017 will be the most costly hurricane season on record after Harvey, Irma and Maria, it added.

Delegates said sweltering temperatures and weather extremes were a spur for action at the annual conference in Bonn from November 6-17, which will work on a detailed rule book for the 2015 Paris climate agreement and try to step up action before 2020.