Four of the key indicators used to measure the progress of climate change hit record levels last year.
These are the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the rise in sea level, the heat accumulated in the oceans and the acidification of the seas.
The global average temperature in 2021 was 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels.
And the last seven years are the warmest on record since reliable measurements began, in the mid-19th century, according to the report on the State of the World Climate of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that was presented this Wednesday.
António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, has considered that this analysis is a "confirmation of the failure of humanity to face climatic upheavals".
In a speech during the presentation of the study, the head of the United Nations, on which the WMO depends, has focused on fossil fuels, the main responsible for the emissions that overheat the planet and that are taking humanity "to the brink of of the climate catastrophe.
"They are a dead end, both from an environmental and economic point of view," said Guterres, who has referred to the war in Ukraine and the problems it is causing with rising prices as "another wake-up call" .
But Guterres has preferred to focus on the solution, on renewable energies, as was also done in the last installment of the IPCC report, the international panel of scientists who x-ray global climate change for the UN.
"It is time to start the transition to renewable energies before it is too late," warned the Portuguese, who has called for investments in green energies to triple to at least four billion dollars a year.
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But to wean yourself off fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—you need to cut off the public funds that governments water them with.
The Secretary General of the UN has stressed that, every minute, these fuels receive 11 million dollars in subsidies in the world, much more than what goes to clean energy.
"Each year, governments around the world invest around half a trillion dollars in artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels, more than triple what renewable energies receive," he has reproached.
"This scandal has to end."
Guterres has called on nations to implement reforms to speed up the deployment of renewables, which is sometimes held back by "bureaucracy, permits and grid connections."
"I call on governments to accelerate and expedite the approval of solar and wind projects."
In addition, he has advocated for countries to weave a "global coalition" to promote battery storage as a form of support for renewable energies in which technology companies, manufacturers and the financial sector are, and that allows the transfer of knowledge .
Lake Powell, Arizona, completely dry due to lack of precipitation.
Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)
The commitment to renewables is part of the recipe proposed by the UN to deal with a climate crisis whose evidence is collected in the WMO report presented this Wednesday.
And whose causes must be sought in human activities, which "are causing changes on a planetary scale in the land, the ocean and the atmosphere."
That is happening with sea level rise, which is not expected to be reversed for thousands of years.
"The global mean sea level reached a new maximum in 2021, after increasing an average of 4.5 millimeters per year during the period 2013-2021," says the WMO.
"This figure, which is more than double that recorded between 1993 and 2002, is mainly due to a more rapid loss of mass from the ice sheets," he adds.
Regarding greenhouse gases, which are generated mainly when fossil fuels are burned, 2021 once again marked record concentrations in the atmosphere.
And this 2022 is going the same way according to the data that the measurement stations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, the three most important greenhouse gases, are providing.
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But chief among them is carbon dioxide.
About 50% of global emissions of this gas from human activities end up in the atmosphere and are what overheat the planet.
Another fourth is trapped by vegetation.
And the remaining 23% ends up in the oceans.
The WMO report warns that the level of acidification of the sea also reached record levels last year and that this threatens biodiversity and food security, tourism and coastal protection.
In addition, the oceans are also overheating to "unprecedented levels" and experiencing "marine heat waves."
Heat waves and other extremes
This climate crisis is also manifested in the increase in extreme phenomena, such as heat waves, floods and severe droughts.
These types of events are increasing in frequency and intensity, as the latest IPCC report made clear.
And the WMO study reviews the extremes experienced last year, which cause billions of euros in economic and human losses.
The WMO recalls that in 2021 in the western part of North America and in the Mediterranean there were "exceptional heat waves that broke records".
In Death Valley (California) 54.4 degrees were reached on July 9, "a value similar to that recorded in 2020 and which constitutes the highest temperature observed in the world since at least the 1930s." .
In Siracusa (Sicily) it reached 48.8 degrees, which is the provisional record for Europe.
The report also includes the case of Montoro, a municipality in Córdoba that reached 47.4 degrees on August 14, "a national record for Spain."
That same day, at the Barajas airport station in Madrid, "its hottest day was recorded with 42.7 degrees."
But as for heat waves, the palm was swept away in 2021 by the one suffered by the Canadian province of British Columbia, where 49.6 degrees were reached on June 29, "which contributed to the production of more of 500 deaths caused by heat and fueled devastating forest fires”, recalls the WMO.
One of the aspects in which the most progress has been made in climate science in recent years is the attribution of extreme events to climate change.
These types of events have always existed, but what attribution reports are looking for is to discern to what extent global warming aggravates a particular heat wave or flood.
The WMO study recalls that in the case of the wave that hit British Columbia, such a phenomenon would have been "virtually impossible without climate change."
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