As 2020 came to an end, this past decade (2011-2020) will be officially registered as the warmest decade on record. We might have expected 2020 to have taken a different course given the economic slowdown caused by the SARS Covid-19 pandemic and a cooling La Niña weather event. Yet, even despite these unusual events, 2020 was the second warmest year on record, slightly behind 2016 and well-surpassing the temperature in 2019.
Global Land and Ocean Temperature Anomalies
(courtesy: World Meteorological Organization)
The official figures from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are expected in January, but as of now, data from European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA’s Goddard Institute, as well as our own research at ESG Base corroborates this finding. The finding also confirms the continuing trend in global temperature in which every decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the previous decade.
The rise in global temperature continued on the heels of rising levels of atmospheric CO2 levels, which, despite the economic slowdown, continued on an upward trend in 2020. As of November 2020, NOAA’s Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii has reported a CO2 level of 412.89 parts per million in the atmosphere, an unprecedented level in the last 800,000 years, and significantly higher than at any point in human history.
Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere
(courtesy: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Dev Majumder, CEO of ESG Base said, “these are increasing indications that the world may be heading toward a state of instability from which it will be very difficult to reverse course. It is in everyone’s collective interests - governments, businesses, investors, consumers - to act decisively and act now before it is too late”.
Economic activities such as power and heat generation, transportation, agriculture, deforestation and land use change, industrial processes, etc. are major contributors of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, and major changes to infrastructures are needed to make these activities carbon-neutral and sustainable. Real-asset investors intending to take the lead in sustainable investments can now use ESG Base’s specialised expertise to make more informed and vetted investment decisions.
About ESG Base
ESG Base is a London-based, global premium provider of technology and data solutions enabling ESG investments in real assets.
ESG Base Ltd.’s mission is to offer scalable technology solutions for fund managers and investors to identify the best ESG aligned investments and to enable performance monitoring of the assets through the investment lifecycle. Their SaaS technology powered by AI and advanced automation draws from a wide range of data sources and provides projections on future performance of investments subject to dynamic policy and technology scenarios.
ESG Base is supported by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School and by Santander UK Universities.