The American “Axios” website said that the links between human-caused climate change and extreme weather events were more evident than ever in 2022, and for the first time they played a major role in shaping international law on climate diplomacy.
And why is it important? Widespread, deadly floods in Pakistan in late summer helped galvanize international support as a way to compensate poor countries for the disproportionate share of the climate damage they bear.
The report stated that the world witnessed a series of extreme weather and climate phenomena in 2022, many of which concluded that they have become more likely or severe due to climate change.
Europe was ravaged by deadly heatwaves and wildfires. Hurricane Ian was particularly deadly, and it went on to ramp up its rapid charge as it approached the vulnerable coast of southwest Florida in September. Parts of Australia were hit by multiple rounds of flooding in 2022, consistent with both La Niña events. In the tropical Pacific Ocean and climate change trends in heavy rainfall events.
Unusual heat and drought afflicted China for more than two months during the summer, with more than 200 all-time high temperature records.
Devastating drought and famine continue to grip the Horn of Africa, which is linked to climate change, as well as climate cycles in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Any of these events could have triggered changes in policy, but it is the floods in Pakistan that have given diplomats from developing countries the moral high ground needed to secure a deal in the COP27 climate talks on the fraught issue of “loss and damage”.
The United Nations talks about the losses and damages about the effects of climate change in the least developed countries, which have contributed relatively little to causing the problem, and yet they are suffering some of the worst consequences since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, and the United Nations climate talks have provided periodic reports On the subject, with little progress made until COP27 in Egypt in the fall, diplomats from industrialized nations including the United States agreed to a two-year process of discussions to create a fund that would compensate developing nations for climate damage they cannot adapt to.
The report added that the disaster in Pakistan is likely to be linked to climate change, according to scientific investigations of the event.
A study published in the aftermath of the disaster found that human-caused global warming would likely increase precipitation amounts for two months by up to 50%.
The study found that climate change may have increased five-day amounts of precipitation in just two of the hardest-hit counties by as much as 75%.
And just as not every year is expected to be the warmest on record, due to the interaction between global warming and natural climate variability, not every year will set records for the worst weather catastrophes either.
And while a devastating 2022 has been in many parts of the world, the US West Coast has enjoyed a respite from the recent trend of record wildfires.