Global warming in action!
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the industrial revolution has lead to Climate Change and rising temperature of the planet Earth.
There is a clear trend of the Earth temperatures in past/recent years surpassing the 20th century (1900-1999) average.
This chart from Statista shows that 2022 was the 6th warmest year on record (since 1880) as Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature in 2022 was 0.86 °C (1.55 °F) above the 20th-century average of 13.9 °C (57.0 °F), According to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Another chart from Statista highlights that while the annual divergence fluctuates, the annual average temperature of ocean surfaces has been diverging from the 20th century average more and more since the 1980s with 2022 global ocean surface temperatures being 0.69 °C higher than that century’s average.
On the New Year’s Day of this year (2023), eight countries in Europe recorded all-time high temperatures for January – see the chart from Statista:
Reminder! Energy (used in electricity⚡, heat🔥and transport🚗 sectors) remains the largest source of emissions, trapping the sun’s heat and increasing the Earth’s temperature. It is therefore not surprising to see many global efforts focusing on decarbonization of these sectors – including energy transition to cleaner sources, electrification and efficient use of energy – to ensure global temperature does not exceed 1.5 to 2 °C above the pre industrial levels.
Time to act is now on climate change!
My LinkedIn post almost a year ago, after the issue of the 6th assessment report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), highlighted this warning.
Extreme weather events such as increased heatwaves, droughts and floods are occurring simultaneously. Global temperatures have already risen to 1.1°C above the pre-industrial levels (1850-1900). The world has already missed many opportunities to limit GWG and mitigate human-induced climate change. If global warming exceeds 1.5°C, some of the opportunities may not be available and some impacts may be irreversible.
While investors, energy companies and governments have made significant progress on energy transition and we have seen many pledges at COP26 last year, recent energy shortages and supply constraints (compounded by geopolitics) have pushed some countries back to using more gas and coal.
But nothing is doomed yet. We can still choose the climate trajectory we want our planet to follow.
