Study Shows Climate Change Made Droughts More Likely in 2022

October 6, 2022 by

Climate change made droughts in the Northern Hemisphere droughts more likely this year, a new study by a team of U.S. and international scientists shows.

The scientists, part of World Weather Attribution, a group that studies links between extreme weather and climate change, collaborated to assess to what extent human-induced climate change was altering the likelihood and intensity of the low soil moisture.

According to the group, the level of drought plaguing the regions in the Northern Hemisphere is expected to occur one time in 400 years. However, climate change makes these conditions likely to repeat every 20 years.

The other main findings from the group’s report include:

  • Heat and low rainfall in West-Central Europe had far reaching impacts on a variety of sectors including human health, energy, agriculture, and municipal water supply.
  • The dry conditions observed in 2022 would have been less likely to occur at the beginning of the 20th century.
  • Models show soil moisture drought will continue to increase with additional global warming, findings that are consistent with projected long-term trends in other established climate models.

Galloping Climate Chaos

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week warned of “a life-or-death struggle” for survival as “climate chaos gallops ahead.”

Guterres also accused the world’s wealthiest countries of not doing enough to stop climate change, and he noted that emissions of global-warming greenhouse gases have risen to all-time highs, Global News reported.

Eyeing the COP27 meeting in Egypt, he said the event is the place to begin halting the losses and damages. He also said commitments by the G20 group of the world’s leading economies were coming up short.

He further warned that pledges and policies being made now actually worsen chances to limit global temperature rise to the 1.5-degree threshold.

“We are in a life-or-death struggle for our own safety today and our survival tomorrow,” Global News reported. “COP27 is the place for all countries — led by the G20 — to show they are in this fight, and in it together.”

Climate NGOs

Climate NGOs this week amplified calls for global insurers to stop covering a massive LNG project.

Reclaim Finance and other activist organizations sent letters to insurers like AXA SA, Allianz SE and Swiss Re AG, urging them to stop providing the coverage necessary to expand the Ichthys LNG project in Australia, Bloomberg reported in an article on Insurance Journal.

It is estimated that emissions from the project could reach 590 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is close to Australia’s entire annual CO2 output.

Most of the insurers involved in the past in this project already “committed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 following a 1.5°C pathway for their re/insurance portfolios,” Ariel Le Bourdonnec, insurance campaigner at Reclaim Finance, said in a statement.

He added: “If they want to meet their climate pledges, they cannot renew their support in such a gas expansion project like Ichthys LNG’s expansion or any other new oil and gas production project.”

According to the Bloomberg article, insurers face some of the biggest risks from climate change, as rising temperatures worsen catastrophes like wildfire and flooding.

USAF

The U.S. Air Force released its climate action plan on Wednesday.

The plan includes a goal of having bases at net-zero emissions by 2046 as part of a massive effort to reduce the Air Force’s carbon footprint, which also accounts for adapting operations to changing climate conditions, NBC News reported.

“Extreme weather and environmental conditions are already imposing high costs on Department of the Air Force installations and operational missions, while simultaneously posing new risks to our ability to train and operate effectively,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall stated.

The plan acknowledged the Air Force is the Defense Department’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.

The plan seeks to modernize global base infrastructure. The Department of the Air Force requested a budget of $194 billion for the next fiscal year, according to NBC News.

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