Alarm over predicted hottest year ever
Target set in Paris in 2015 to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C by century’s end now seems unrealistic
Just days before the crucial COP28 summit in Dubai on November 30, scientists are predicting that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded after the new record in October. The trend is also evident in Greece’s weather conditions, as this fall has been characterized by unprecedented heat, mosquitoes and fires.
Experts warn that the need for urgent climate action has never been greater, as compared to the late 1800s, global temperatures are up 1.7 degrees Celsius, European Copernicus scientists said.
Action to limit the increase to 1.5°C by the end of the century was promised at the Paris summit eight years ago. Alas, if present policies are maintained, it is anticipated that this figure will rise to 2.4°C.
The Loss and Damage Fund for vulnerable countries for the developing world, the establishment of which had been announced in the UN’s previous climate summit, COP27 in 2022 to much fanfare, turned out to be an empty letter. This fund should also help the countries of the south to transition to the green economy. Last Saturday, the 24 members of the mechanism’s board of directors agreed on its final statutes, which they will present at COP28.
However, disagreement between southern and northern countries over the financing of the fund threatens to derail the debate even on the crucial issue of greenhouse gas reduction.
Although the developed world had pledged at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 that they would have exceeded $100 billion in climate aid to the developing world by 2020, that goal remained a distant one in 2023.
In Greece, the National Observatory of Athens announced that this October was warmer than the average of the previous 15.
According to the network of 51 meteorological stations of the National Observatory of Athens/meteo.gr, the average value of maximum daily temperatures last October was extremely high in almost the entire country, compared to the average of the period 2010-19.
The largest positive temperature deviations were recorded in Macedonia and Thrace, with the average monthly values ranging up to 3.5°C above the normal for the season levels.
What is also noteworthy is that throughout October there were no negative temperatures – i.e. the thermometer did not fall below zero at any weather stations, even at mountain stations at altitudes above 2,000 meters.
