Bapon (SHM) Fakhruddin, PhD

Water and Climate Leader| Strategic Investment Partnerships and Co-Investments| Professor| EW4ALL| Board Member| Chair- CODATA TG| Award Winner (SDG 2021, EWS 2025)

Global Warming Trends and the Imperative for Urgent Climate Action

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Bapon Fakhruddin

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2023 was the 5th warmest globally, capping off the last nine years as the nine hottest in recorded history. And the warming trend is accelerating – the past eight years are the eight warmest.

The climate models forecast this. We are now living it.

On top of this human-caused warming, natural climate cycles like El Niño are causing further spikes in temperature. The El Niño event that started in late 2022 is expected to persist through 2024.

Historical observations show these El Niño years see extreme heatwaves, droughts, floods, and other climate impacts worldwide. The year 2024 could well set a new record for global average temperature. The consequences will be profound. More intense and frequent extreme weather disasters lowered crop yields, spread disease, displacing communities.

We cannot precisely predict how hot 2024 will get. But the direction of travel is clear. Unless we sharply curb emissions now and support vulnerable nations, this rising heat will bring increasing chaos.

#COP28 gave us hope and promise, and now we demand action. We urge all countries to heed these facts, live up to their commitments, and rapidly transition.

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About the author

Dr Fakhruddin is an expert climate change risk assessor with 18 years’ global experience in working on disaster risk and climate resilience projects. This experience is a major advantage in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy development. His key areas of expertise are climate and multi-hazard risk assessment, disaster preparedness, early warning and emergency response and coastal community resilience. He has designed climate change and disaster response projects more than 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific. During his career, Dr Fakhruddin helped to design major international multi-hazard early warning systems for floods, cyclone and tsunami to save life and property damage. His most high profile work has been developing multi-hazard warning systems including a tsunami warning system for Indian Ocean countries following the deadliest one in history – the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Dr Fakhruddin is currently work as a mentor and supervisor for postgraduate study in disaster risk management in University of Auckland (UoA). He is a Science Committee Member of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR, Co-Chair for the Disaster Loss DATA and Risk Interpretation and Applications (RIA) Working Group of IRDR of ICSU/UNISDR. He is also Co-Chair CODATA task group Linked Open Data for Global Disaster Risk Research (LODGD) and PSG member of the Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) and Open Panel of Commission for Hydrology Experts (OPACHE) of WMO. Recently Dr Fakhruddin appointed by the Government of New Zealand to develop national climate change risk assessment framework