The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published a decadal assessment of the state of the global climate, documenting the devastating impacts of extreme events, particularly on food security, displacement, and migration, all of which hinder development and progress on the SDGs. To achieve the Global Goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, it highlights the need for “synergistic action, whereby advancements in one can lead to improvements in the other.”

Titled, ‘The Global Climate 2011-2020: A Decade of Accelerating Climate Change,’ the report finds that the decade was the warmest on record for land and ocean. Atmospheric concentrations of the three major greenhouse gases (GHGs) continued to rise, and rates of ocean warming and acidification increased. It further finds that with marine heatwaves becoming more frequent and intense, the ocean warming, and land ice mass on the decline, global mean sea level rise also accelerated.

The report points to “the profound transformation taking place in Polar regions.” Glacier loss, it warns, is “unprecedented in the modern record,” with Greenland and Antarctica having lost 38% more ice in the 2011-2020 decade than during the 2001-2010 period, and the seasonal mean minimum of Arctic sea ice extent declining to 30% below average.

At the same time, the report brings some good news. The ozone hole was smaller in the 2011-2020 period than during the two previous decades, reflecting the success of the Montreal Protocol, which regulates Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs).

With regards to sustainable development, the report highlights that even though economic losses from extreme events have been increasingly devastating, improvements in forecasts, early warnings, and coordinated disaster management and response have reduced the number of casualties.

The findings further indicate that public and private climate finance almost doubled between 2011 and 2020. However, the report flags, it “needs to increase at least seven times by the end of this decade to achieve climate objectives.”

The report was released on 5 December, during the first week of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its findings complement WMO’s annual State of the Global Climate report, provisionally issued in November. [Publication: The Global Climate 2011-2020: A Decade of Accelerating Climate Change] [Publication Landing Page] [WMO Press Release] [Release Announcement] [UN News Story]