Washington: The year 2021 was the world’s fifth hottest on record, while levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere hit new highs, European Union scientists have said.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report on Monday that the last seven years were the world’s warmest “by a clear margin” in records dating back to 1850 and the average global temperature in 2021 was 1.1-1.2C (1.98-2.16F) above 1850-1900 levels.
The hottest years on record were 2020 and 2016.
Climate change exacerbated many of the extreme weather events sweeping the world in 2021, from floods in Europe, China and South Sudan, to wildfires in Siberia and the United States.
Global levels of CO2 and methane, the main greenhouse gases, continued to climb, and both hit record highs in 2021.
Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 414.3 parts per million in 2021, up by approximately 2.4ppm from 2020, the scientists said.
After a temporary dip in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, provisional data suggest global CO2 emissions rebounded by 4.9 percent in 2021.
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