A new climate warning has been issued which suggests that the world is warming at a record 0.2°C per decade.
50 top scientists warned that record-high greenhouse gas emissions and diminishing air pollution have caused an unparalleled acceleration in global warming.
In a peer-reviewed study aimed at policy-makers, human induced warming between 2013 and 2022 has been increasing at an unprecedented rate of over 0.2 degrees Celsius every 10 years.
The all time high of 54 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and other gases, about 1,700 tonnes every second, was reached in average annual emissions over the same period.
The data will be presented at the COP28 climate summit later this year in Dubai, which will assess progress toward the 2015 Paris Agreement goals.
It was found that, ironically, one of the big climate success stories of the past 10 years – the gradual drop in use of coal – has hastened the pace of global warming. This is because it has reduced the air pollution which shields Earth from sun rays.
Particle pollution from whatever source dampens warming by about half-a-degree Celsius, meaning that, in the short term, more of that heat will reach the planet’s surface as the air becomes cleaner.
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