World temperatures on the rise - climate change report
Bushfires, melting sea ice and rising temperatures - 2019 wasn't a good year for the climate, according to a damning new report. The latest State of the Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), released on Wednesday, found Global average temperatures were 1.1C above pre-industrial levels at the end of 2019. The year was second only to the record set in 2016, when a very strong El Nino event contributed to an increased global mean temperature atop the overall warming trend, the report said. In a foreword to the report, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries were "currently way off track" to meeting the 1.5C or 2C tagets that the Paris Agreement calls for. READ MORE: * Climate change 'accelerating': World leaders feel the heat in upcoming UN climate summit * Here's how the hottest month in recorded history unfolded around the globe * Climate change: UN chief says 'total disaster' if global warming not stopped WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said given greenhouse gas levels continued to increase, "the warming will continue". A recent forecast indicated a new annual global temperature record was likely in the next five years. "It is a matter of time," Taalas said. "We just had the warmest January on record. Winter was unseasonably mild in many parts of the northern hemisphere. Smoke and pollutants from damaging fires in Australia circumnavigated the globe, causing a spike in CO2 emissions. "Reported record temperatures in Antarctica were accompanied by large-scale ice melt and the fracturing of a glacier which will have repercussions for sea level rise." However, the report found despite the severe and prolonged fire season in Australia, daily total wildfire CO2 emissions generally followed the 2003-2018 average.