World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climate Services Director Christopher Hewitt stated that the use of artificial intelligence in climate measurements is an encouraging process and said, “We are seeing huge growth in renewable energy around the world. So I think renewable energy looks promising, but we have a long way to go.”
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climate Services Director Christopher Hewitt answered questions within the scope of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Pointing out that greenhouse gas emissions remain the biggest problem facing the fight against global warming, Hewitt said, “They are increasing the warming that we see in the atmosphere, which is causing the ice sheets to melt and sea levels to rise. In other words, increasing greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest problem.” Hewitt stated that there are established infrastructures in global energy production and said, “We are seeing huge growth in renewable energy around the world. So I think renewable energy looks promising, but we have a long way to go.” Stating that she hopes countries will reach a new agreement on financing the fight against the climate crisis, Hewitt said, “As WMO, we prepare reports on the state of the climate, we observe the climate system and provide information to policy makers. Hopefully, this can lead to progress in terms of finance and greenhouse gas emissions.” Hewitt said he has experience in climate modeling, adding: “Our current approach to climate modeling uses a lot of energy by running the models on supercomputers. So AI will bring new approaches to that. When I started working on climate modeling, we didn’t use a lot of AI approaches, so it’s encouraging to have different approaches. We don’t know what will happen in the end, but I think the use of artificial intelligence is worth pursuing.” WMO published its report titled “Climate Status Update 2024” yesterday as part of COP29. The report emphasized that, according to measurements taken between January and September of this year, 2024 is expected to be the hottest year on record. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in her assessment of the report, “The record-breaking rainfall and floods, rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, deadly heat, relentless droughts and severe forest fires we have seen in different parts of the world this year are unfortunately a harbinger of our new reality and our future.”
