COP27: '2022 likely to be 5th or 6th warmest year on record'

Each of the last eight years, if projections for 2022 hold, will be hotter than any year prior to 2015, the UN said Sunday, detailing a dramatic increase in the rate of global warming.

Sea level rise, glacier melt, torrential rains, heat waves -- and the deadly disasters they cause -- have all accelerated, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report as the COP27 UN Climate Summit opened in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

"As COP27 gets underway, our planet is sending a distress signal," said UN chief Antonio Guterres, describing the report as "a chronicle of climate chaos".

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Earth has warmed more than 1.1 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, with roughly half of that increase occurring in the past 30 years, the report shows.

Nearly 200 nations gathered in Egypt have set their sights on holding the rise in temperatures to 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), a goal some scientists believe is now beyond reach.

This year is on track to be the fifth or sixth warmest ever recorded despite the impact since 2020 of La Nina -- a periodic and naturally occurring phenomenon in the Pacific that cools the atmosphere.

"The greater the warming, the worse the impacts," said WMO head Petteri Taalas.

Surface water in the ocean -- which soaks up more than 90 percent of accumulated heat from human carbon emissions -- hit record high temperatures in 2021, warming especially fast during the past 20 years.

Marine heat waves were also on the rise, with devastating consequences for coral reefs and the half-billion people who depend on them for food and livelihoods.

Overall, 55 percent of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022, the report said.

Driven by melting ice sheets and glaciers, the pace of sea level rise has doubled in the past 30 years, threatening tens of millions in low-lying coastal areas.

"The messages in this report could barely be bleaker," said Mike Meredith, science leader at the British Antarctic Survey.