The first eight months of 2024 were the warmest ever recorded, according to the WMO

The most relevant scientific data collected indicates that the first eight months of 2024 were the warmest recorded since measurements were made, the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Celeste Saulo, said this Wednesday.

The scientist from Argentina emphasized that the world is far from reaching the climate objectives set in 2015, on the occasion of the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In the presentation in Geneva of the “United in Science” report, the result of a collaboration between several organizations and intended to lead the discussions on the climate in the United Nations General Assembly, which is currently taking place, Saulo recalled that 2023 was the warmest year “by a long way,” but he also wanted to add a little hope.

To this end, he recalled that when the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, it was projected that emissions of gases that cause global warming would increase by 16% in the period 2030-2030, but the truth is that the most recent reference to an increase of 3%.

“So progress has been made, but we need to be much more ambitious,” he declared at a press conference, where he also emphasized that there is an 80% chance that the average temperature of the planet will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius to the reference pre-industrial period (1850-1900), at least for one of the next five years.

If public policies and industrial development do not change dramatically, the increase in measured temperature will probably reach 3 degrees by the end of the century.

However, Saulo insisted that there is hope because the sciences (natural and social), new technologies and innovation make us better understand how the planet works and can be factors that determine how to adapt to climate change and disaster risk reduction.

With information from EFE