Experts: Opportunity to stabilize the global climate has now been missed. North Korea wants to deport a fugitive American soldier from the country

“We must accept that the 1.5 degree limit will be exceeded. The Paris Framework Agreement has effectively failed on this point.”said Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. “This also means that only with enormous efforts will it be possible to keep warming below the 2 degree limit.” We are currently on track to a 3 degree world by the end of the century.

Forest fires, heat waves, floods – the extreme weather events of 2023 are a turning point, according to experts. “Global air and water temperatures have never been as high as this year,” a statement to Congress said. “Never before have heat records and forest fires reached such magnitude as in 2023.”

The five to six degrees higher water temperatures in the Mediterranean would have led to record levels of evaporation and subsequent precipitation in Europe and North Africa. “Due to the randomness in the chaotic system of the atmosphere, Germany has not experienced the extreme heat and drought phases that we experienced in southern Europe. It would have been possible.”

Better preparation required

The EU environment agency EEA had already warned in late spring: “Our changing climate is making the weather in Europe more extreme.” According to the authority, heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and lasting longer due to climate change. The summer of 2022 was already a “summer of heat waves”.

“We can all still see the terrible images of the storm disasters in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Libya,” said Tobias Fuchs, board member of the German Weather Service. “International climate research agrees: any further global warming will lead to a rapid increase in weather-related natural hazards.” According to Fuchs, people must better prepare for the catastrophic consequences of extreme weather, such as droughts, forest fires and floods.

Weather presenter Sven Plöger called for stronger climate protection. Ideas are needed to get everyone involved. “Climate protection must become a once-in-a-century issue in a socially and environmentally healthy market economy without hyperconsumption,” he said. “Politicians are being called upon to finally create the guardrails that are still missing.” (sda/dpa/afp)