Senior State Meteorologist and member of Spanish Meteorological Association
After two long weeks of negotiations and outside the official deadline, COP27 has reached an agreement to create a loss and damage fund to help the most vulnerable countries face the impacts of the climate crisis. However, other issues such as greater ambition in mitigation strategies to avoid exceeding 1.5ºC of warming and less dependence on fossil fuels have not achieved the commitment of all parties.
The Global Carbon Project (GCP) today releases its Global Carbon Budget 2022 report. The main conclusion is that there is no sign of a decrease in global CO2 emissions and, at current levels, there is a 50 % chance of exceeding 1.5°C warming in nine years. The results will be published in the journal Earth System Science Data.
A study published in Science Advances estimates that economic losses due to heatwaves caused by climate change between 1992 and 2013 exceeded $5 trillion. Moreover, lower-income countries were more affected than richer regions.
This summer's monsoon rains in Pakistan are ten times heavier than usual and have already affected more than 33 million people. Some six and a half million are in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 400,000 refugees. Pakistan's prime minister has called them "the worst in the country's history".
Research estimates that the rise in global average temperatures could approach 2 ˚C by 2050. The study, published in Communications Earth and Environment, estimates that by 2100 many people living in tropical regions will be exposed to dangerously high levels of heat on most days of the year. In addition, deadly heatwaves, which are currently rare in mid-latitudes, could occur every year in these areas.
Spain is suffering these days a new heat wave that, according to experts, will last at least until Monday and it is not clear when it will end.
A study published in Nature Geoscience shows how climate change is interfering with processes affecting atmospheric circulation and significantly altering the climate in Spain and Portugal. The anomalous expansion of the Azores anticyclone is drying out the Iberian Peninsula and making it increasingly resemble North Africa.
British researchers have analysed the extent to which various types of extreme weather events are attributable to climate change. In the case of heatwaves, they find an unequivocal link. They estimate that the 35 worldwide between 2000 and 2020 have caused at least 157,000 deaths and warn that it is very likely that the impact of this phenomenon is being underestimated.