World Meteorological Organization: 2021 is one of the seven warmest years on record

On January 19, local time, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization pointed out on its official website that the agency's comprehensive data shows that although the global average temperature has dropped due to the La Niña event from 2020 to 2022, 2021 is still one of the warmest seven years on record. Global warming and other long-term climate change trends are expected to continue as endothermic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reach record levels.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

The World Meteorological Organization says the global average temperature in 2021 is about 1.11 (±0.13) celsius above pre-industrial levels, approaching the lower limit of warming that the Paris Agreement seeks to avoid. 2021 is also the seventh consecutive year in which global temperatures are above 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

According to the agency's summary, each decade since the 1980s has been warmer than the previous, and this is expected to continue. The seven warmest years all appeared after 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 in the top three. An El Niño event occurred in 2016 that pushed the global average warming to record levels.

WMO Secretary-General Taras said the la Niña incident has made the warming in 2021 relatively less significant than in recent years. Even so, 2021 is warmer than previous years affected by la Niña. The overall long-term warming caused by the increase in greenhouse gases is now much larger than the year-on-year variation in global average temperature due to natural climate drivers.

These temperature values will be included in the WMO's final report on the state of the climate in 2021, released in April. The report includes information on all key climate indicators and excerpts on climate impacts, and updates the interim report issued during the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in October 2021.

The World Meteorological Organization also noted that temperature is only one of the indicators of climate change. Other indicators include greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat content, ocean pH, global mean sea level, glacier mass, and sea ice range.