Action taken as climate and biodiversity threats mount

Cold snap, heat wave

High temperatures and snow were also part of the climate change story in 2021.

In February last year, a cold snap and winter storm hit many northwest, central and eastern states in the US, causing damage put at $24 billion.

Texas and other southern states experienced widespread power outages, with temperatures below freezing recorded for many days. At the peak of the outages, nearly 10 million people were without power, according to the NCEI.

Europe and the Middle East experienced heavy snowfall, which blanketed the Acropolis and other ancient landmarks in Athens, the Greek capital, and halted many public services in Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Will Steffen, a spokesman for the Climate Council in Australia and an expert on climate change, said cold air is usually held in check by the jet stream－a narrow variable band of extremely strong predominantly westerly air currents encircling the globe at an altitude of several kilometers.

However, the so-called gradient between the equator and North Pole is now weakening, with cold air breaking through as warm air is dragged up, Steffen said.

According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, satellite measurements showed that last year was one of the warmest on record, with the annual average temperature 1.1 C to 1.2 C higher than during the preindustrial period from 1850 to 1900.

In summer, a vast area of the western US and Canada experienced a heat wave on a scale thought to occur only once in 1,000 years.

In the US, a temperature of 46.7 C was recorded in Portland, Oregon state, while a high of 42.2 C was reported in Seattle, Washington state. In Canada, the mercury rose far above 30 C in Vancouver, where summer temperatures average about 20 C.

The extreme temperatures caused hundreds of direct and indirect heat-related fatalities and also triggered wildfires and droughts in the two neighbors, severely threatening humans and wildlife.

In October, the UN's COP 15 Biodiversity Conference, held in Kunming, Yunnan province, made clear that the world is experiencing species loss at an alarmingly high rate and that ecosystem collapse will spell disaster for humans and the planet. As a result, urgent action must be taken.

The gathering aimed to set a global framework for biodiversity post-2020 and to give biodiversity the same level of protection as the climate.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said:"Climate change and biodiversity loss have sounded the alarm for humankind and forced us to think deeply about the relationship between man and nature."

The Kunming Declaration was adopted on Oct 13, committing parties to the convention to ensuring the development, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 global framework to reverse biodiversity loss and ensure that biodiversity is put on the road to recovery by 2030 at the latest.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said:"With the conclusion of the first part of COP 15, we have taken a critical step toward writing a new chapter for our planet and for our societies.

"Adoption of the Kunming Declaration, and the strong political direction provided by many ministers, has put us firmly on the path to the adoption of an effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework that will engage the entire world in the task of putting nature on a path to recovery by 2030."

The declaration also noted calls made by many countries to protect and conserve, by 2030, some 30 percent of the world's land and sea areas through well-connected systems of protected zones and other effective area-based conservation measures.

At the gathering, the Kunming Biodiversity Fund was established to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, with China taking the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan ($233 million).