Due to anthropogenic climate change, 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded on Earth and the first calendar year to exceed the 1.5°C warming threshold since industrial revolution. Humanity has likely missed the Paris Agreement target of keeping the global temperature within 1.5 degrees of the pre-industrial level. Latest data projects that this target will be breached as early as 2029. To still achieve the 2.0 degrees target of the Paris Agreement, much greater efforts in reducing carbon emissions, especially phasing out the use of fossil fuel, must be exerted by all countries as a matter of urgency. Even human activities and carbon emissions have temporarily reduced during the COVID pandemic, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to increase unabated, showing the sheer magnitude of the climate actions required.
Climate change has relentlessly led to more frequent extreme weather around the world, notably the devastating Libyan floods of 2023, the deadly Mediterranean heatwave of 2024, the record-breaking Spanish flash floods in October 2024, and the unprecedented Los Angeles fire this January. In Hong Kong, 2024 saw yet another year with the number of very hot days and hot nights exceeding 50 a year. This number has already been exceeded in consecutive five and six years respectively. Super typhoons Hato of 2017, Mangkhut of 2018 and Saola of 2023, and the "once-in-a-century" rainstorm of September 2023 also remind us that we are not far away from disasters should the "perfect storm" hit Hong Kong next time.
This presentation will provide the latest climate projections of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change and their impact on Hong Kong. It will also discuss what actions are urgently needed for Hong Kong to better adapt to climate change and to make our city more resilient to extreme weather. In particular, the speaker will explain why a comprehensive climate risk assessment should be conducted for Hong Kong and how medical practitioners could help.
