The crisis has become “The defining challenge that humanity faces”, WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said, as witnessed by the growing food insecurity, population displacement, and biodiversity loss it has brought about. The number of food-insecure people has more than doubled from 149 million before the pandemic to 333 million in 2023. Weather hazards continued to trigger displacement, and raise the costs of food production with farmlands destroyed. While some of these parameters, updated after the pandemic and with two wars raging on, may not be the direct result of climate extremes, the sudden spikes have been triggered by these extremes. Temperatures will continue to rise for many years to come, WMO warned, with concentrations of three main greenhouse gases showing a continued rise after reaching record levels in 2022. The report also highlighted the unusual warming in areas such as the Northeast Atlantic, which did not correspond to typical patterns of warming associated with El Niño, and has puzzled scientists. But there is a glimmer of hope: Renewable energy capacity additions increased by almost 50% from 2022 driven by solar radiation, wind and water cycle.

The report is just a confirmation — a document for history books — of what humanity faced all of last year. It needs to be seen as a “Red Alert” for a society facing a threat to its existence as changes to the fundamental Earth systems speed up. It is also a now constant reminder of the urgent need to cut emissions drastically. UN secretary general António Guterres rightly said the records are “chart-busting” — the Y-axes for several scales were extended this year to accommodate the higher values set last year. Whether this rhetoric spurs action is to be seen.