The past seven years have been the hottest ever

The seven years from 2015 to 2021 were the hottest ever, confirming the progress of climate warming with record concentrations of greenhouse gases, as announced Monday by the European Copernicus Program for Earth Observation.

Although 2021 was the fifth warmest year ever, it has experienced the devastating effects of climate change: exceptional and deadly heat waves in North America and southern Europe, devastating fires in Canada and Siberia, a cold snap in the central United States, and severe precipitation in China and Western Europe.

Despite the decrease in the level of the “El Niña” climatic phenomenon, the year 2021 recorded, according to Copernicus, a higher average temperature of between 1.1 and 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era (1850-1900), which is a reference comparison to measure the warming caused by emissions Greenhouse gases caused by human activity, bearing in mind that the goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement was to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius and 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible.

On an annual average, 2021 ranks slightly ahead of 2015 and 2018, with 2016 still being the hottest year.

This European body notes that the past seven years "have been the warmest ever, by a clear margin".

“This is a stark reminder of the need for us to change and to take effective and decisive measures to move towards a sustainable society and work to reduce carbon emissions,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Climate Change Service at Copernicus. responsible for the phenomenon of climate warming.

Carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming that comes mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels and the production of cement, reached a record 414.3 parts per million, according to "preliminary" data from Copernicus.

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