The latest data from the EU’s Copernicus service showed that the last seven years have been the hottest on record.
According to the data, 2021 was the fifth-warmest year, with record-breaking heat in some regions.
The 2021 average temperature was 1.1-1.2C above the pre-industrial level around 150 years ago.
Governments vowed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C to curb climate change. But scientists warn that time is fast running out.
The environmental, human and economic costs of hotter temperatures are already clear globally.
Europe lived through its warmest summer, and temperature records in western US and Canada were broken by several degrees. Extreme wildfires in July and August burnt almost entire towns to the ground and killed hundreds.
“These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards reducing net carbon emissions,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, explains.
The Copernicus data comes from a constellation of Sentinel satellites that monitor the Earth from orbit, as well as measurements taken at ground level.
Last Seven
Overall Europe’s annual temperature was outside the ten warmest years on record but the summer was the hottest.
A heatwave swept through Mediterranean in July and August, particularly affecting Greece, Spain and Italy.
