United Nations:
The year 2020 was one particular of the 3 warmest years on record and rivalled 2016 for the best spot, indicating the pace of the “human-induced” climate modify which is now as potent as the force of nature, the UN climate agency has stated.
All 5 datasets surveyed by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) concur that 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record, in a persistent lengthy-term climate modify trend.
The warmest six years have all been considering that 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 being the best 3. The variations in typical worldwide temperatures amongst the 3 warmest years are indistinguishably tiny. The typical worldwide temperature in 2020 was about 14.9 degrees Celsius, 1.2 (± .1) degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) level.
“The confirmation by the World Meteorological Organisation that 2020 was one of the warmest years on record is yet another stark reminder of the relentless pace of climate change, which is destroying lives and livelihoods across our planet,” Secretary-General António Guterres stated.
He pointed out that at 1.2 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels, the planet is currently witnessing unprecedented climate extremes in every single area and on every single continent.
“We are headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius this century,” he stated.
“Making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st century. It must be the top priority for everyone, everywhere,” he stated.
La Nina, which started in late final year, is anticipated to continue into the early-middle portion of 2021.
La Nina refers to the substantial-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with modifications in the tropical atmospheric circulation, namely winds, stress and rainfall. It typically has the opposite impacts on climate and climate as El Nino, which is the warm phase of the so-named El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
“The exceptional heat of 2020 is despite a La Nina event, which has a temporary cooling effect,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas stated.
La Nina and El Nino effects on typical worldwide temperatures are commonly strongest in the second year of the occasion.
“It is remarkable that temperatures in 2020 were virtually on a par with 2016, when we saw one of the strongest El Nino warming events on record,” he added.
“This is a clear indication that the global signal from human-induced climate change is now as powerful as the force of nature,” Taalas stated.
The extent to which the continued cooling effects of La Nina this year could temporarily diminish the general lengthy-term warming trend remains to be noticed.
The WMO pointed to sustained heat and wildfires in Siberia, diminishing Arctic sea ice and record-breaking hurricanes in the Atlantic as getting amongst the climate events that most stood out in 2020.
The UN climate agency stated that temperature is just one particular climate modify indicator. Greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat content, worldwide imply sea level, sea ice extent and intense events are also elements.
The WMO’s consolidated worldwide temperature update incorporates info from 5 major international sets of information. It also utilizes datasets that combine millions of meteorological and marine observations, which includes from satellites, with models to create a comprehensive reanalysis of the atmosphere.
“The combination of observations with models makes it possible to estimate temperatures at any time and in any place across the globe, even in data-sparse areas such as the polar regions,” according to WMO.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit worldwide warming to nicely beneath 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius degrees, compared to pre-industrial levels.
However, the worldwide typical temperature in 2020 had currently approached the decrease limit of the temperature enhance that the Agreement seeks to avert.
Moreover, there is at least a one particular-in-5 possibility that the typical worldwide temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2024, according to WMO’s Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, led by the United Kingdom’s Met Office.
The 2021 Met Office annual worldwide temperature forecast also suggests that next year will once again be one particular of the earth’s hottest years.