Know the 2020 Global Climate Status

Climate change continues to rage. According to a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report, 2020 is one of the three warmest years on record.

The period from 2011 to 2020 is the warmest decade on record, and 2015 is the start of the six warmest consecutive years.

The WMO report used the following indicators of climate change—greenhouse gases, global mean surface temperature, extreme events, ocean heat content, sea-level rise, glacial melt, sea ice, and ocean acidification—to measure and explain the progress of climate change over the years and its devastating impacts on the people, environment, and infrastructure in its provisional report on the State of the Global Climate in 2020.

The report is presented through an interactive online platform using maps, graphs, and videos to describe the rapid change in climate change indicators.

According to the report, ocean heat is at record levels, with more than 80% of the global ocean experiencing a heatwave in 2020. Ocean acidification is damaging marine life. The extreme heat that has fueled record wildfires, floods, and the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season has impacted millions of people, compounding threats to human health security and economic stability caused by the pandemic.

Concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere continue to increase, committing the planet to further warming for generations to come due to the long-term effect of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, slowing the summer Arctic ice. 2020 has been the lowest Arctic sea ice on record. Greenland continues to lose ice, losing 152 Gt in 2020. Ocean heat content in 2019 was the highest since 1960, showing a faster heat uptake in recent decades because most of the increased GHG concentrations in the climate systems are absorbed in the oceans.  

Severe floods affect millions in East Africa and Asia, particularly Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, China, and Vietnam.

During the first half of 2020, the WMO recorded around 10 million displacements due to hydrometeorological hazards and disasters concentrated in South and Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Learn more about the WMO report, the interesting facts and figures of climate change, and how it impacts everything on our planet by clicking the link below: