Extreme continent: New WMO report paints alarming picture of climate emergency in Asia

Extreme continent: New WMO report paints alarming picture of climate emergency in Asia

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

• Asia is the world’s most disaster-prone region and more than 50 million people were directly affected due to 81 weather-, climate- and water-related disasters in Asia during 2022, according to a new report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on July 27, 2023.

Report findings:

• The report titled State of climate in Asia, 2022.
• The report was released during the meeting of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP) Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction.
• In Asia, the number of disaster events have decreased in comparison to 2021 (100 disasters in 2021).
• But the effects of such events in 2022 were much more pronounced, with an increase in the number of fatalities, people affected and economic damage.
• Some 5,879 Asians died due to natural disasters in 2022. This is almost 55 per cent more than the human deaths recorded in 2021 across the region.
• The economic cost of the damage due to these events has been more than $ 36 billion. Pakistan accounted for 42 per cent of this, with economic losses of at least $15 billion.

Floods and droughts:

• The economic losses associated with floods in 2022 exceeded the average over the past 20 years (2002-2021).
• This was primarily due to the significant economic losses from floods in Pakistan (over $15 billion), China (over $5 billion) and India (over $4.2 billion).
• More than 25 per cent of all loss and damage from climate-related disasters such as floods, droughts and tropical storms is associated with the agriculture sector. So, the sector is central to all climate adaptation planning.
• Early warnings are one of the most effective ways of reducing damage from disasters. But there are still significant gaps to be addressed to strengthen these systems in order to reduce the adverse impacts of hydrometeorological hazards in the region.

Continent of extremes- Asia:

• Asia, the continent with the largest land mass extending to the Arctic, is warming faster than the global average.
  • The warming trend in Asia in 1991-2022 was almost double the warming trend in the 1961-1990 period.
  • In 2022, the estimated mean temperature over Asia was 0.73°C [0.63-0.78] above the 1991-2020 average, making it either the second- or third-warmest year on record.
  • The temperature rise is not happening equally across the continent.
• Sea surface temperature rise:
  • The ocean surface in the region has been warming since 1982. In the northwestern Arabian Sea, the Philippine Sea and the seas east of Japan, the warming rates exceed 0.5°C per decade, roughly three times faster than the global average.
  • The Barents Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean, is identified as a climate change hotspot, with regional warming five-seven times the global warming average.
    • The Barents Sea borders the Norwegian and Greenland Sea in the west, the Arctic Sea in the north and the Kara Sea in the east.
    • The Barents Sea is divided between Russia and Norway as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
• Glacier melting:
  • Over the past 40 years, four glaciers with long-term observations in the High Mountain Asia region experienced mass loss, with an accelerating trend in the 21st century.
  • From 2021-2022, Urumqi Glacier No. 1 in the eastern Tien Shan mountain range recorded its second-most negative mass balance (‑1.25 m w.e.) since measurements began in 1959.
• Sea level rise:
  • As the ocean warms and expands and glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets melt, sea levels rise. From 2013-2022, the global average sea level rose at rate of 4.6 mm per year.
  • The rates of sea level rise across most of Asia are higher than the global mean rate over 1993-2022 (3.4 ± 0.3 mm per year).
  • The north-east Indian Ocean and western tropical Pacific region have even higher rates, above 4 mm per year.