2020 was, along with 2016, the highest of the warmest years in the world, culminating in a decade of record temperatures that further demonstrates the “urgent need” to take action against rising temperatures, according to the European Copernicus for climate change.
The year 2020 closed at 1.25 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period, as in 2016. But “it should be noted that 2020 equaled the record of 2016 despite the cold effect of the La Niιαa phenomenon”, insists the C3S service.
2016 was marked by a powerful episode of El Nino, a natural ocean phenomenon that causes temperatures to rise. According to NASA and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), El Niιοo had contributed 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius to the global temperature of 2016.
“It is quite clear that, if it were not for the effect of El Ni καιo and La Niιαa on temperature from one year to the next, 2020 would be the warmest year ever,” Zackie Hospader, a climatologist at Breakthrough, told AFP. Institute, noting that global temperatures are rising by 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade since the 1970s.
The PMO, which will soon publish data combining data from many official services, had announced in late December that 2020 will be one of the three hottest years.
In Europe, which was characterized by an unusual heat wave, 2020 was by far warmer, by 0.4 degrees Celsius above 2019, and by 1.6 degrees Celsius above the reference period 1981-2010, ie more than 2.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period.
This rise in temperature already exceeds the targets of the Paris Agreement. But these targets are for the whole planet and it is known that the temperature is rising faster on land than in the oceans and that in some areas the temperature is rising much faster, such as in the Arctic, where temperatures in 2020 exceeded by 6 degrees Celsius the average reference temperature.
In the same Arctic region, particularly in Siberia, the year was also marked by an “extremely dynamic” period of forest fires, releasing 244 megatons of CO2, “more than a third more than the 2019 record”.
Apart from a single year, the period 2015-2020 is the warmest ever recorded and the last decade (2011-2020) is also the warmest since the beginning of the industrial era.
“It is not surprising that the last decade is the hottest ever recorded and this reminds us once again that there is an urgent need to reduce emissions in an ambitious way to prevent future negative effects on the climate,” he said in a statement. Carlo Boudebo, director of C3S.
These negative effects are already being felt all over the world, from the melting of the eternal ice to the unusual heat waves, passing through the torrential rains or even the last record-breaking season of cyclones in the Caribbean.
And the worst is yet to come. The temperature of the planet has increased by at least 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era and climate catastrophes are already taking place. However, despite the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep the temperature rise well below +2 degrees Celsius, if possible at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the current commitments of the states to reduce the emissions of the gas that causes the phenomenon are still far from such a trajectory.
Despite the measures taken against the Covid-19 pandemic and the slowdown in the economy that led to a record reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020 (-7%, according to the Global Carbon Project), CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere continued to rise, according to with Copernicus satellite data. In May 2020 it reached “an unprecedented maximum” of 413 ppm (parts per million).
“Although carbon dioxide concentrations increased slightly less in 2020 than in 2019, there is no reason to rest on our laurels. “As long as net global emissions are not reduced to zero, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and cause a new climate change,” warned Bensan-Henri Pess, head of the Copernicus air monitoring service.
The year 2020 ended at 1.25 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period, as in 2016. But 2016 was marked by an intense El Nino episode – an oceanic natural phenomenon that causes temperatures to rise – which, according to scientists, had increased the temperature of the year by 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius.
