(The National) - Climate change brings the perils of fire and water. The Gulf might have thought extreme heat was its biggest threat, but last week demonstrated that water, too, is a threat. The region needs an integrated approach to cope with rising seas, floods and drought.
Worldwide sea-surface temperatures this year are exceptionally hot – some 0.2°C higher than last year, which was itself 0.2°C hotter than the long-term average through the second half of 2023.
When we’re already hovering around the Paris Agreement’s target of no more than 1.5°C warming by 2100, 0.2-0.4°C is a lot. Long-term warming plus the El Nino effect can account for most of this, but there is still an anomaly that is not fully explained.
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