Already 1.08 ° C
According to the latest report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), unveiled at the opening of COP26, the planet has already warmed by 1.08 ℃ since the industrial revolution. According to the WMO, at this rate, the average global warming will be “well above 2 ℃” by 2100. The level of the oceans also reached a new record in 2021. From 2013 to 2021, the rise of the oceans accelerated at a rate of 4.4 mm per year, mainly due to melting glaciers.
Anxious and skeptical scientists
PHOTO ALBERTO PEZZALI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Delegates to the UN climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland
According to a survey conducted by Nature among the scientists who prepared the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), they are rather pessimistic about the chances of limiting global warming below 2 ° C. 61% of them also say they are anxious about the situation. It must be said that 60% of respondents believe that the world is heading towards a warming of 3 ° C by 2100. If we add those who estimate that the warming will be 2.5 ° C, almost 80% of them do not believe that the 2 ° C target will be met. Finally, only 16% believe that their work has enabled decision-makers to deploy climate policies.
The quote
PHOTO AHMAD AL-RUBAYE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Young Iraqis bathe among the buffaloes in the Diyala River during a heatwave.
Everyone wants to keep the dream of [limiter le réchauffement à] 1.5 ° C. In every sense of the word, you’re kidding yourself if you think we’re headed for 1.5 ° C. So why this optimism?
Glen Peters, Director of Research at the Center for International Climate Research
Mr. Peters said, however, that the goal of limiting global warming to 2 ℃ was still achievable, but there was still a lot of work to be done to get there.
360.43
PHOTO ALTAF QADRI, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Delhi, Indian megalopolis shrouded in smog
In 1995, the year of the first UN climate conference, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 360.43 parts per million (ppm). Twenty-six later, it rose to 413.89 ppm. Note that from 2005 to 2018, greenhouse gas emissions increased by 23%.
1.5 ° C
PHOTO CHRISTOPHER FURLONG, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
UN Climate Conference, COP26
“The 1.5 ° C target was not set arbitrarily, it is not a political target. It’s a planetary limit, ”said the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Johan Rockström, in the daily newspaper The Guardian. “This is real science, this is a very real number. We can now say with a high degree of certainty that 1.5 ° C is the limit to the warming that the planet can absorb. Each additional fraction of a degree is dangerous. ”