The Climate Monitoring Service of the European Union said that 2020 was the hottest year on record, breaking the 2016 record and bringing humanity closer to the “point of no return.” This confirms the trend of accelerated global warming, which can turn into a disaster. This is reported in a press release at Phys.org.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Earth’s average temperatures have risen 1.25 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with the Southern Oscillation, known as El Niño, and affecting global temperatures, at a low. The six years since 2015 are the warmest ever recorded.
In some regions, warming in 2020 far exceeded the global average. So, in Europe, the average surface temperature has reached 2.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial value. That’s half a degree above the 2019 average, which was also a record hot in Europe. In the Arctic, temperatures have risen seven degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Forest fires in Siberia, which continue until autumn, have emitted into the atmosphere a record quarter of a billion tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of Spain, Egypt or Vietnam. Carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere peaked at 413 parts per million, nearly 50 percent more than in the early 18th century, despite the pandemic resulting in seven percent reductions in emissions.
Even if all countries fulfill their commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement, by the end of the century the planet will still warm by more than three degrees.