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STORY: GENEVA / WMO STATE OF THE CLIMATE
TRT: 2:52
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations, Geneva
2. Wide shot, journalists and podium with speakers, Room III
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Baddour, WMO Senior Scientific Officer and Coordinator of the report:
“The news is bad; most of the extreme events related to heat have now been identified as being influenced by anthropogenic human influences. One of the studies actually showed that the heatwave which occurred in Japan in July 2018 which was associated with more than 100 lives lost was almost impossible to happen without human influence.”
4. Wide shot, journalists, Room III
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Maxx Dilley, Director of WMO Climate Prediction and Adaptation Division:
“Not only are these statistics alarming, they dispel any false sense of security that maybe we will muddle through this.”
6. Med shot, journalist listening, Room III
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Baddour, WMO Senior Scientific Officer and Coordinator of the report:
“Some of the regions have recorded their warmest periods, such as most of western United States including Alaska, Southern America - in particular in the eastern part - most of Europe and north of Eurasia, the Middle East, Australia and part of Southern Africa.”
8. Close up, journalist, Room III
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Baddour, WMO Senior Scientific Officer and Coordinator of the report:
“While in the Arctic we have seen the downward trend of sea ice extent for many years, in the Antarctic we have just started seeing that as well, since 2016.”
10. Med shot, journalists, Room III
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Baddour, WMO Senior Scientific Officer and Coordinator of the report:
“The sea level rise is accelerating – not only increasing - but it is accelerating.”
12. Med shot, journalists writing and listening, Room III
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Maxx Dilley, Director of WMO Climate Prediction and Adaptation Division:
“The current nationally determined contributions submitted by the Parties to the Paris Agreement would have to be three times as ambitious as they currently are to meet the two degree (Celsius) target and five times as ambitious as they currently are to meet 1.5 degree (Celsius) target and that assumes of course that these pledges are actually implemented.”
14. Med shot, journalist writing, Room III.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Maxx Dilley, Director of WMO Climate Prediction and Adaptation Division:
“Most of the emissions are coming from fossil fuel combustion and from making cement, so while it’s not enough simply to try to reduce the emissions from those sources, those are two areas obviously which need quick attention.”
16. Close up, journalist’s hands typing on laptop, Room III.
17. Med shot, journalist on her phone, Room III.
18. Med shot, journalist looking at her laptop, Room III.
As the Climate Action Summit begins at United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday, UN weather experts warned about the “glaring - and growing – gap” between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality.
Citing the latest data on key climate indicators, from the planet’s likely record temperature rise in the last five years (currently 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels), the amount of sea ice melt and the number of deadly heatwaves, as well as the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that there was clear evidence that human influence was to blame.
Speaking today (23 Sep) to reporters in Geneva, Omar Baddour, WMO Senior Scientific Officer said, “The news is bad; most of the extreme events related to heat have now been identified as influenced by anthropogenic human influences.”
Quoting from a landmark report - United in Science - compiled by the world’s leading climate science organizations to inform the UN meeting in New York and coordinated by WMO, Baddour added that one study showed that the Japanese heatwave in July 2018 in which more than 100 people died would have been almost “impossible…without human influence”.
Echoing that message, Maxx Dilley, Director of WMO Climate Prediction and Adaptation Division, highlighted the need for all countries to take concrete steps immediately to mitigate the adverse effects on the planet of increased emissions and temperatures.
“Not only are these statistics alarming, they dispel any false sense of security that maybe we will muddle through this,” he said.
Baddour pointed to regional weather extremes around the world to underscore the importance of all Governments committing to a move away from fossil fuels to greener energy.
“Some of the regions have recorded their warmest periods (in the last five years),” he said, “such as most of western United States including Alaska, Southern America - in particular in the eastern part - most of Europe and north of Eurasia, the Middle East, Australia and part of Southern Africa.”
And while scientists have long warned about rapidly shrinking sea ice in the Artic linked to warming seas almost everywhere except some “colder spots” in the Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and in parts of the Pacific Ocean, Baddour pointed to new data showing that Antarctic ice is also impacted by climate change.
“While in the Arctic we have seen the downward trend of sea ice extent for many years, in the Antarctic we have just started seeing that as well, since 2016,” Baddour said.
According to the WMO-coordinated report, the four lowest values for winter sea-ice extent occurred between 2015 and 2019.
Overall, the amount of ice lost annually from the Antarctic ice sheet has increased at least six-fold between 1979 and 2017, data shows. In addition, glacier mass loss for 2015-2019 “is the highest for any five-year period on record”.
On sea level rise, Baddour insisted that it is not only increasing, “but it is accelerating”, his warning based on a global sea-level rise of four millimetres a year from 2007–2016, up from 3.04 millimeters per year from 1997–2006.
Linked to warmer seas, the United in Science report also indicates that ocean acidity has increased by more than a quarter since the beginning of the industrial era.
The Climate Action Summit in New York, convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres – reflects a desire to encourage all Governments around the world to commit to tackling the problem.
In 2015, countries committed to doing so in Paris, via national pledges to reduce emissions, but these need to be reviewed urgently, WMO’s Maxx Dilley insisted.
His comments are in line with data published on Monday showing that levels of the main long-lived greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4)) and nitrous oxide (N2O) - have reached new highs.
“The current nationally determined contributions submitted by the Parties to the Paris Agreement would have to be three times as ambitious as they currently are to meet the 2 degree (Celsius) target and five times as ambitious as they currently are to meet 1.5 degrees (Celsius),” he said. “And that assumes of course that these pledges are actually implemented.”
Asked to pinpoint which human activities were most environmentally damaging, Mr Dilley maintained that “most of the emissions are coming from fossil fuel combustion and from making cement, so while it’s not simply to try to reduce the emissions from those sources, those are two areas obviously that need quick attention”.
