Globally, glaciers thinned by about 1 metre per year, impacting water supplies for millions

 The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) released a report during the UN climate conference , highlighting the impact of worsening climate change on India during the 2011–2020 decade. The report, offering a long-term perspective, pointed to sustained trends without variations attributed to phenomena like El Niño or La Niña.

According to the provisional annual report for 2023, disclosed at COP28, the year is projected to be the warmest on record. The decade was characterised as a “wet decade” over northwest India, Pakistan, China, and the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Extremely warm days during this period were twice the 1961–1990 average in certain regions.

India faced significant climate-related events during the decade, including the devastating floods in Uttarakhand in June 2013 and floods in Kerala in 2018. The report underscored the socio-economic and humanitarian impacts of droughts in India, leading to severe food and water insecurity.

Globally, glaciers thinned by about 1 meter per year, impacting water supplies for millions. The Antarctic continental ice sheet lost nearly 75 per cent more ice between 2011 and 2020 compared to 2001 and 2010, raising concerns about sea-level rise.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas emphasised that each decade since the 1990s has been warmer than the previous one, with no immediate sign of this trend reversing. He highlighted the warming oceans and the doubled rate of sea-level rise. The report pointed out that weather and climate-related events were responsible for nearly 94 per cent of all disaster displacement over the last decade, impacting global efforts to address hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.

The report also highlighted the significant impact of climate change on extreme events, with an increase in the likelihood of heatwaves. While improvements in early warning systems have reduced casualties, economic losses have increased, with heatwaves causing the highest number of casualties and tropical cyclones causing the most economic damage.

Despite public and private climate finance nearly doubling between 2011 and 2020, the report emphasised the need for a sevenfold increase by the end of this decade to achieve climate objectives. With global carbon dioxide emissions reaching 36.8 billion metric tonnes in 2023, WMO’s deputy secretary-general, Elena Manaenkova, stressed the urgency of addressing climate change.