2021 was one of the seven warmest years on record, says UEA research
2021 was 0.1 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial average confirms the World Meteorological Organisation
2021 was one of the seven warmest years on record.
That's according to research partly complied by the UEA and verified by the World Meteorological Organization which concluded that last year was 0.1 degrees higher than pre-industrial average.
Professor Tim Osborn is from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.
He explains why this trend cannot be allowed to continue:
"The reason why The Paris Climate Accords were set up to try and limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is because of all the knock-on effects that has. Extreme weather events of certain types get more intense or more frequent. Be that wild-fires in parts of the US or Australia or warmer summer months in parts of Europe.
In recent years the rate of sea-level rise has accelerated, principally because ice sheets, the Greenland and Antarctica are melting more rapidly as the climate warms. It might be a global figure, it has a regional and local impact".
But, he also told us that we have the means to reverse this:
"Firstly we need to reduce energy use through more efficient applications and houses. Then we need to change the way we produce energy, by shifting away from gas and more towards renewable and nuclear energy. Those things, we already have the technology for, they are being implemented by that needs to accelerate.
Temperatures will increase while we continue to emit carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. But of course, as soon as we start to reduce the emissions the rate of that warming will slow. Once our emissions get down to net-zero, the warming will stop. We won't return to previous conditions we'll just level off and have a more stable climate at a new level".