Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Climate-related disasters have caused more than $4.3 trillion in economic losses and claimed over two million lives worldwide between 1970 and 2021, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released on World Meteorological Day, observed annually on March 23.
WMO Secretary-General Prof. Celeste Saulo said while economic losses from extreme weather events continue to soar, the global community has made significant progress in saving lives. “We are better at saving lives than ever before,” she remarked.
According to the WMO, 2024 is likely to become the first calendar year where the global average temperature temporarily exceeds 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — a critical threshold set by the Paris Agreement. “Unfortunately, it will not be the last,” the report warned. “Every fraction of a degree matters to our lives and livelihoods.”
The WMO report highlighted the growing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, storms, floods, and tropical cyclones, underscoring the urgent need for global climate action.
This year’s theme for World Meteorological Day — “Closing the Early Warnings Gap Together” — emphasizes expanding access to early warning systems globally. The WMO noted that as of 2024, 108 countries have some form of multi-hazard early warning capacity, more than double the number in 2015. However, the agency stressed that more needs to be done, faster.
The UN’s ‘Early Warnings for All’ initiative, launched to ensure every person on Earth is protected by a warning system by 2027, was a key focus of the day. The WMO called on governments to collaborate, scale up technologies, and invest in building more resilient societies.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also called for strong political backing, improved technology support, and a major push in climate financing. “Increasing the lending capacity of Multilateral Development Banks is key,” he said, referring to the ‘Pact for the Future’, agreed in 2023, which aims to accelerate climate resilience.
The WMO’s State of the Global Climate report offered a stark picture of ongoing environmental degradation:
2024 is on track to be the warmest year in 175 years of observations.
CO₂ concentrations are at their highest in 800,000 years.
Each of the last 10 years has ranked among the warmest on record.
The three lowest Antarctic ice extents and largest glacier mass losses were recorded in the past three years.
The rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite tracking began.
The report attributed record temperatures to a combination of rising greenhouse gas emissions, the El Niño phenomenon, and other contributing factors like volcanic eruptions, changes in the solar cycle, and a decline in cooling aerosols.
“The time is now,” the WMO urged. “By investing and innovating together, we can fulfill the promise of early warnings for all and build a safer, more climate-resilient world.”
