The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released the State of the Global Climate report 2022, highlighting the continuous advance of climate change from mountain peaks to ocean depths.

According to the report, droughts, floods and heatwaves affected communities on every continent and cost many billions of dollars. Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts.

The State of the Global Climate 2022 shows the planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere caused by record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. For global temperature, the years 2015-2022 were the eight warmest on record despite the cooling impact of a La Niña event for the past three years. Melting of glaciers and sea level rise - which again reached record levels in 2022 - will continue to up to thousands of years.

“Populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events”

Launching the report, WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said:

“While greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and the climate continues to change, populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events. For example, in 2022, continuous drought in East Africa, record breaking rainfall in Pakistan and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage.”

The new WMO report is accompanied by a story map, which provides information for policy makers on how the climate change indicators are playing out

In addition to how the climate change indicators are playing out, the report focuses on impacts.

Throughout the year, hazardous climate and weather-related events drove new population displacement and worsened conditions for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement at the beginning of the year, according to the report.

The report also puts a spotlight on ecosystems and the environment and shows how climate change is affecting recurring events in nature, such as when trees blossom, or birds migrate.

The WMO State of the Global Climate report was released ahead of Earth Day 2023 which takes place every year on 22^nd April.. Its key findings echo the message of UN Secretary-General António Guterres for Earth Day.

“We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions. But we must pick up the pace. We need accelerated climate action with deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius. We also need massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis,” said Mr Guterres.

The WMO report follows the release of the State of the Climate in Europe report by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It complements the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report, which includes data up to 2020.

In 2019 the IPCC separately published a major report warning that no place on Earth would be spared the impacts of climate change. 

Key findings in the report include:

Climate Indicators

Global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15 [1.02 to 1.28] °C above the 1850-1900 average. The years 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest in the instrumental record back to 1850. 2022 was the 5th or 6th warmest year. This was despite three consecutive years of a cooling La Niña – such a “triple-dip” La Niña has happened only three times in the past 50 years.

Concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record observed highs in 2021, the latest year for which consolidated global values are available (1984-2021). The annual increase in methane concentration from 2020 to 2021 was the highest on record. Real-time data from specific locations show levels of the three greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2022.

Glaciers - cumulative thickness loss since 1970 amounts to almost 30 metres

Reference glaciers for which the WMO has long-term observations experienced an average thickness loss of over 1.3 metres between October 2021 and October 2022 - much larger than the average loss of the last decade. Six of the ten most negative mass balance years on record (1950-2022) occurred since 2015. The cumulative thickness loss since 1970 amounts to almost 30 metres.

The European Alps smashed records for glacier melt due to a combination of little winter snow, an intrusion of Saharan dust in March 2022 and heatwaves between May and early September.

Chart::Total annual loss 2022 of Swiss glaciers related to the current ice volume 2002–2022

In Switzerland, 6% of the glacier ice volume was lost between 2021 and 2022 – and one third between 2001 and 2022. For the first time in history, no snow survived the summer melt season even at the very highest measurement sites and thus no accumulation of fresh ice occurred. New record temperatures were reported from the summit of Mont Blanc.

Measurements on glaciers in High Mountain Asia, western North America, South America and parts of the Arctic also reveal substantial glacier mass losses. There were some mass gains in Iceland and Northern Norway associated with higher-than-average precipitation and a relatively cool summer.

According to the IPCC, globally the glaciers lost more than 6000 Gt of ice over the period 1993-2019. This represents an equivalent water volume of 75 lakes the size of Lac Leman (also known as Lake Geneva), the largest lake in Western Europe.

The Greenland Ice Sheet ended with a negative total mass balance for the 26th year in a row.

Sea ice in Antarctica dropped to 1.92 million km2 on February 25, 2022, the lowest level on record and almost 1 million km2 below the long-term (1991-2020) mean. For the rest of the year, it was continuously below average, with record lows in June and July.

Arctic sea ice in September at the end of the summer melt tied for the 11th lowest monthly minimum ice extent in the satellite record.

For the period 2005-2019, total land ice loss from glaciers, Greenland, and Antarctica contributed 36% to the GMSL rise, and ocean warming (through thermal expansion) contributed 55%. Variations in land water storage contributed less than 10%.

New record highs in 2022 for ocean heat content and global mean sea levels

Ocean heat content reached a new observed record high in 2022. Around 90% of the energy trapped in the climate system by greenhouse gases goes into the ocean, somewhat ameliorating even higher temperature increases but posing risks to marine ecosystems. Ocean warming rates have been particularly high in the past two decades. Despite continuing La Niña conditions, 58% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave during 2022.

Global mean sea level (GMSL) continued to rise in 2022, reaching a new record high for the satellite altimeter record (1993-2022). The rate of global mean sea level rise has doubled between the first decade of the satellite record (1993-2002, 2.27 mm∙yr-) and the last (2013-2022, 4.62 mm∙yr).

Impacts include drought, floods, heatwaves and food insecurity

Drought gripped East Africa. Rainfall has been below-average in five consecutive wet seasons, the longest such sequence in 40 years. As of January 2023, it was estimated that over 20 million people faced acute food insecurity across the region, under the effects of the drought and other shocks.

Record breaking rain in July and August led to extensive flooding in Pakistan. There were over 1 700 deaths, and 33 million people were affected, while almost 8 million people were displaced. Total damage and economic losses were assessed at US$ 30 billion. July (181% above normal) and August (243% above normal) were each the wettest on record nationally.

Record breaking heatwaves affected Europe during the summer. In some areas, extreme heat was coupled with exceptionally dry conditions. Excess deaths associated with the heat in Europe exceeded 15 000 in total across Spain, Germany, the UK, France, and Portugal.

China had its most extensive and long-lasting heatwave since national records began, extending from mid-June to the end of August and resulting in the hottest summer on record by a margin of more than 0.5 °C. It was also the second-driest summer on record.

As of 2021, 2.3 billion people faced food insecurity, of which 924 million people faced severe food insecurity. Projections estimated 767.9 million people facing undernourishment in 2021, 9.8% of the global population. Half of these are in Asia and one third in Africa.

Dozens of experts from a large number of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and associated institutions contribute to the report, as well as Regional Climate Centres, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), the Global Cryosphere Watch and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change services.

WMO uses six international datasets for temperatures HadCRUT.5.0.1.0 (UK Met Office), NOAAGlobalTemp v5 (USA), NASA GISTEMP v4 (USA), Berkeley Earth (USA), ERA5 (ECMWF), JRA-55 (Japan).

“Heat waves are the most evident sign of climate change"

In an exclusive interview with the UK Met Office, Omar Baddour – the WMO’s head of Climate Monitoring and Policy Services – discussed the latest findings.

Omar Baddour said:

“It is fair to say that the State of the Global Climate report for last year – with its litany of negative indicators – makes unpleasant reading for all those concerned about the impacts of climate change.

“I would say that 2022 was the busiest year in terms of extreme weather events, with member states reporting around 500 extreme weather and climate events worldwide.”

With searing temperatures affecting many nations from the UK to India and Pakistan, 2022 will be remembered by many as the year of the heatwave. The increasing intensity of heatwave is no surprise to the WMO’s head of Climate Monitoring. He said:

“The heat waves are the most evident sign of climate change because they are directly associated with increasing temperature; and increasing temperature is directly associated with increasing greenhouse gas concentration; which in turn are associated with human anthropogenic factors.

“This is why, for instance, we are reaching records which have been never recorded in the past, like in Europe, but also in many parts of the world in the East Asia, in the Middle East, in North America and so forth.

“So, with the current trend of carbon-dioxide emissions and greenhouse gas concentration increasing, we can only say that the frequency, unfortunately will still be going on in the future if nothing is done to accelerate the mitigation efforts.”

The Met Office is among the large number of key contributors to the report. The World Meteorological Organization is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on weather, climate and water.

Click here to download WMO's State of Global Climate 2022 report in full