The World Meteorological Organization has added the Earth's energy imbalance as a new key indicator in its latest climate report, highlighting how oceans absorb most excess heat. This measure underscores the ongoing warming trend despite yearly temperature fluctuations. The report warns of impacts on food systems from ocean heating and sea level rise.
The World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, released its latest report on Sunday, tracking essential climate indicators such as atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures. For the first time, it incorporated the Earth's energy imbalance, or EEI, defined as the difference between solar energy absorbed by the planet and energy radiated back to space. John Kennedy, lead author and scientific coordinator, stated that EEI represents 'fundamentally what climate change is.' He added, 'As long as that energy imbalance is there, the Earth will keep on warming, ice will continue to melt, and the sea level will continue to rise.' Kennedy noted that air temperature variations from El Niño and La Niña can obscure long-term warming trends tracked by surface temperatures alone. EEI provides context for other indicators like sea level rise and glacier melt. The report reveals that oceans absorb 91 percent of excess energy accumulated since the 1960s due to the greenhouse gas effect, with records set in each of the last nine years. This ocean heat buildup threatens food production through coral bleaching, habitat loss, reduced fish catches, coastal erosion from sea level rise, and flooding from glacier melt that disrupts farming. Jennifer Jacquet, a professor at the University of Miami, praised the WMO's focus on oceans, calling them 'carbon sponges' with limits that have masked climate progress. She cited a 2016 incident in Chile where farmed Atlantic salmon died amid an algae bloom during a marine heat wave. Jacquet observed that warming drives wild fish toward polar regions, harming equatorial fishers and heightening food insecurity. 'The oceans are reaching their limit of what they can do to help offset anthropogenic changes,' she said.