The report notes that the past eight years have been the warmest on record

Posted on 01/11/2023 06:00

(credit: CRISTINA QUICLER)

A report released yesterday by the European Climate Change Program Copernicus (C3S) showed that the past eight years were the warmest on record in the world. According to the analysis, which considered the period from 2015 to 2022, each year in that period recorded a temperature increase of at least 1°C, compared to the pre-industrial average.

Most of Western Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and northwest Africa are the worst affected regions. Latin America and the Caribbean are relatively excluded from these records because of a cycle dominated mainly by La Niña in the Pacific Ocean, which generated some cooling. This phenomenon also resulted in lower-than-normal temperatures across eastern Australia, as well as heavy rain.

Overall, according to the document, the world is, on average, 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer. According to Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S, the results show “clearly” that to avoid the “worst” consequences, society must “urgently reduce carbon dioxide emissions and adapt rapidly to climate change”.

extremists

In those eight years, the population faced exceptional droughts and floods and an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which is the main cause of global warming. “2022 was a year of extreme weather events,” Borges recalls, “making it clear that we are already suffering from the devastating consequences of the warming of our planet.”

Last year is fifth warmest in the global rankings. But in more detailed analyses, he changes his position. In Europe, for example, it ranks second. In the continent’s last summer, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain experienced severe droughts and record-breaking temperatures.

Meanwhile, Pakistan faced historic floods, central and eastern China experienced severe heatwaves, and Nigeria suffered floods. In the south, the largest extension of unstable ice has been observed “in 44 years of satellite observations”.

In the authors’ assessment, the report confirms forecasts by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published in November and described by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, as a “climate chaotic reality”.