September 22, 2019

expert reaction to report on temperature and impacts of climate change from 2015-2019

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have published a report on the global climate between 2015 and 2019 highlighting an acceleration to climate change and further warming. 

Prof Rowan Sutton, Director of Science (Climate) for the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Reading, said:

“This new report shows how rapid climate change, directly caused by human activities, is continuing apace.  The impacts are ever more widespread, evident, and costly.  This pattern will continue and get worse until the goals of the Paris Agreement – to bring net human emissions of greenhouse gases to zero – are achieved. Even then, warming will continue for some decades.   But the important point is that we do know what to do, and many of the solutions are already available. It is simply a question of collective will.”

Prof Stephen Belcher, Met Office Chief Scientist, said:

“The last four years have seen the warmest global mean temperatures since records began in 1850. But the impacts of this climate change aren’t being felt equally. Some nations are feeling the effects of climate change, such as more intense heatwaves and heavier flooding, earlier than others. These impacts are only going to get worse over the coming years and will become more widespread, threatening people’s way of life. Our response to this threat needs to be global, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to lessen future climate change, and adapting our societies to the climate change which we cannot avoid. The only way this can happen effectively is for scientific and engineering experts to come together with communities around the world to find the best solutions to this shared problem.”

Prof Chris Rapley, Professor of Climate Science, University College London (UCL), said:

“500 years ago Niccolò Machiavelli wrote: “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”

“To tackle climate change requires that we collectively transform the way we power, finance and govern the modern world – to introduce a radically new order.

“And fast.

“It’s a gargantuan task. 

“The technical challenges alone are daunting. 

“And changing the failed global economic and political system at the root of the crisis was always going to be obstructed by those ‘doing well’ with ‘the laws on their side’. 

“But people are overcoming their incredulity – the WMO report adding its own stark evidence.

“Millions are mobilising to express their fear and anger.

“Change is coming, like it or not.

“Better to help than to hinder.”

Prof Martin Siegert, Co-Director, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, said:

“Unfortunately it would be a major surprise if this was not the case. CO2 concentrations drive global temperatures and as the level of CO2 in our atmosphere is increasing our climate is forced to follow suit. The obvious and sad conclusion is that we are behind where we should be to mitigate this significant problem.”

Prof Brian Hoskins, Chair of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, and Professor of Meteorology, University of Reading, said:

“Climate change due to us is accelerating and on a very dangerous course. We should listen to the loud cry coming from the school children. There is an emergency – one for action in both rapidly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions towards zero and adapting to the inevitable changes in climate.”

Prof Dave Reay, Chair in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh, said:

“This reads like a credit card statement after a 5-year long spending binge. Arguably of most concern is the apparent acceleration in the rise of CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere. On top of still-growing emissions from human activities have come increased emissions from wildfires and weaker carbon uptake by the land and oceans. Time will tell if this weakening of global carbon sinks is a temporary blip or the beginning of a sustained reversal that rips control of future climate from our grasp. Either way, our global carbon credit is maxed out. If emissions don’t start falling there will be hell to pay.”

‘WMO report on The Global Climate in 2015-2019’ was published at 3pm UK TIME on Sunday 22 September 2019. 

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