Global warming: 2020 set to be one of three hottest years ever, UN says

Name: Hong Kong’s 11-year-old climate activist on a mission to urge adults help save future generations
Uploaded: 2020-12-02T14:52:34.000Z
Duration: 4 min 18 s
Description: Hong Kong’s 11-year-old climate activist on a mission to urge adults help save future generations

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in its provisional State of the Global Climate report that it has been an ‘extraordinary year’

2020 saw extreme temperatures, especially in the Arctic, as well as wildfires in places like Australia and devastating flooding in Africa and Southeast Asia

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A firefighter douses flames in California in September. Wildfires consumed vast areas in Australia, Siberia, the US West Coast and South America during the year, sending plumes of smoke circumnavigating the globe. Photo: AFP

Agence France-Presse

Published: 10:52pm, 2 Dec 2020Updated: 3:11am, 3 Dec 2020

This year is on course to be one of the three warmest ever recorded and could even top the record set in 2016, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The past six years, 2015 to 2020, are set to make up all six of the hottest years since modern records began in 1850, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in its provisional 2020 State of the Global Climate report.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change calls for capping global warming at well below two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level, while countries will pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit).

“2020 has, unfortunately, been yet another extraordinary year for our climate,” said WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas.

“The average global temperature in 2020 is set to be about 1.2C above the pre-industrial level,” said Taalas. “There is at least a one in five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5C by 2024.”

04:18

Hong Kong’s 11-year-old climate activist on a mission to urge adults help save future generations

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday denounced a “suicidal” failure to combat global warming and said recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic could be humanity’s chance for a reset to save the planet.