The year 2021 was the fifth warmest year on record, as levels of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane in the atmosphere have reached new peaks, according to European Union scientists.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report on Monday that the past seven years were the world’s warmest, “by a sharp margin”, in records dating back to 1850. , and the average global temperature in 2021 was 1.1 to 1.2°C above the levels of 1850 to 1900.
The warmest years on record were 2016 and 2020.
Countries pledged in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, a level that scientists say would avoid the worst impacts. This would require emissions to roughly halve by 2030, but so far they have increased.
As greenhouse gas emissions change the planet’s climate, the long-term warming trend continues. Climate change has exacerbated many extreme weather events hitting the world in 2021, from floods in Europe, China, South Sudan and Brazil to wildfires in Siberia and the United States.
“These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our habits, take decisive and effective steps towards a sustainable society and work to reduce net carbon emissions,” said C3S Director Carlo Buontempo.
The global levels of CO2 and methane, the main greenhouse gases, continued to rise, both reaching record highs in 2021. CO levels2 in the atmosphere reached 414.3 parts per million in 2021, an approximate increase of 2.4 ppm from 2020, the scientists said.
C3S said levels of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, had jumped in the past two years, but the reasons were still not fully understood. Methane emissions come from oil and gas production, agriculture and natural sources such as swamps.
There was even a temporary drop in gas emissions in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
european peaks
Last summer was the hottest on record in Europe, C3S said, after a hot March and unusually cold April that decimated fruit crops in countries like France and Hungary.
In July and August, a heat wave in the Mediterranean caused intense fires in countries including Turkey and Greece. Sicily had a new European temperature peak, with 48.8 degrees, a record that awaits official confirmation.
In July, more than 200 people died when torrential rains caused deadly flooding in western Europe. Scientists have concluded that climate change has increased the likelihood of flooding by 20%.
Also that month, floods in China’s Henan province killed more than 300 people. In California, a record-breaking heat wave was followed by the second largest wildfire in the state’s history, decimating land and exacerbating air pollution.
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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