Global temperatures set to stay on record-setting path, warns UN weather agency
Global temperatures are expected to continue at or near record levels for the next five years.
That’s the worrying message from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday.
It’s just published data indicating a four in five chance that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest on record.
There’s also a 70 per cent chance that the average temperature over the next five years will be more than 1.5° above pre-industrial levels – increasing the likelihood of harmful heatwaves, extreme rainfall and drought.
Here’s WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis:
“These are more than just statistics. Every additional fraction of a degree of warming matters. It drives more harmful heat waves, more extreme rainfall events, more intense droughts, melting of ice and glaciers, heating of the ocean and rising sea levels.”
Ms. Nullis stressed that the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target has not been breached quite yet as it refers to long-term averages measured over 20 years.
However, these near-term spikes are warning signs of an accelerating climate crisis.
UN aid teams plead for access amid reports Gazans shot collecting food
In Gaza, dozens of Palestinians have been reportedly injured and shot trying to collect aid from the new US and Israeli-backed aid distribution facility operating independently of the UN.
Unverified footage from Rafah where the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is based showed scenes of panic with people rushing in different directions.
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, said that it had received information that at least 47 people had been hurt on Tuesday trying to collect aid.
From January to March last year, the UN human rights office documented 26 incidents where Israel Defense Forces fired shots while people were collecting humanitarian aid, causing casualties at Al Kuwaiti roundabout and Al Naburasi roundabout.
In a related development, UNICEF announced that the war in Gaza has killed or injured more than 50,000 children in less than 600 days.
UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said that since the ceasefire ended on 18 March, approximately 1,300 children have been killed and 3,700 injured alone.
That number is enough to fill more than 1,600 classrooms, Ms. Ingram told UN News:
“Every one of these children is a life. A child with a family, with hopes for the future. They should never be reduced to numbers. And yet we continue to count their deaths. And live stream, they’re suffering to the world. This must end immediately. The children of Gaza desperately need protection from these ongoing bombardments, as well as food, water, medicine and other basic supplies that they need to survive. The blockade must end. Aid must flow freely and at scale, and more than anything else, we need a ceasefire we need collective action to stop these atrocities and to protect children.”
Essential supplies reach key Sudanese hospital in the wartorn Darfur region
To Sudan, where essential supplies have reached a hospital in the wartorn Darfur region.
Announcing the news, the UN World Health Organization – WHO – said that El Geneina Hospital in West Darfur received eight tonnes of medical supplies for nutrition, non-communicable diseases and mental health.
It is enough to support six months’ health service delivery.
In its latest update the UN aid office, OCHA, warned that the crisis in Sudan is deepening, with sustained fighting, ongoing displacement and rising health needs.
In North Darfur state, artillery shelling continues to affect residential areas of El Fasher and the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people.
Local sources continue to report daily civilian casualties and recent days have seen an intensification of nighttime bombardments.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
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