The last nine years have been ranked in the top 10 hottest years since records began, with 2021 being the sixth joint hottest year in a tie with 2018.
According to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2021 Annual Global Climate Update, the detailed report shows how the 2021 global land and ocean temperature was 1.04°C above the pre-industrial age.
The goal of the Paris Agreement is to keep the warming below 2°C (3.6°F), but the aspirational goal is actually 1.5°C. Unfortunately, none of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases are meeting said requirements.
The European Climate Watch counterpart reported earlier this week that 2021 was the fifth hottest on record, which reflects how close this year’s average temperature was to 2018 and 2015.
With different data sets and analyses having slightly different rankings, both analyses still agree that the seven hottest years on record all happened in the last seven years to a decade.
Director of GISS Gavin Schmidt, NASA’s leading centre for climate modelling and climate change research, stated that the complexity of the various analyses doesn’t matter because the signals are so strong. ‘The trends are all the same because the trends are so large.’
This analysis shows 2021 was the 4th warmest year for the US, with several countries recording their warmest temperature as well. Record temperatures were seen across Northern Africa, Southern Asia, southern South America and even Australia.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said that ‘science leaves no room for doubt. Climate change is the existential threat of our time.’ He called for bold action to safeguard the future of the entire world.
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