Global temperatures in 2022 were among the highest on record, while greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions hit an all-time high in 2021, the most recent data from UN agency the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) show today.
Data sets place 2022 as the fifth or sixth warmest year on record, the WMO found in its State of the Global Climate 2022 report. Temperatures so far this year in Europe have continued to reach new record highs, it has found separately.
The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15°C above the average for 1850-1900 and the years 2015-2022 were the eight warmest since records began in 1850. The report confirmed the preliminary findings, released in November 2022. The Paris climate agreement seeks to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures and preferably to a 1.5°C limit.
Record high annual temperatures were reported in 2022 in western Europe, the western Mediterranean, parts of central and eastern Asia and New Zealand. Record heat was also recorded "over large areas of the north and southwest Pacific [ocean]", the report found.
Temperatures have reached record highs over recent years despite a "triple-dip" La Nina weather event which has recurred in the past three years. La Nina is typically linked to a temporary reduction in global mean temperature, while El Nino is associated with higher temperatures. The US' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration anticipates an El Nino event developing as soon as May.
Concentrations of GHGs CO2, methane and nitrous oxide all reached new highs in 2021, while the annual increase in methane from 2020-21 was the largest on record, the WMO said. Real-time data show that levels of the GHGs continued to rise in 2022, it added. The organisation is "preparing a new scheme for monitoring the sinks and sources" of key GHGs, based on ground and satellite measurements, WMO secretary general Professor Petteri Taalas said.
Rise in sea levels accelerates
The upper 2,000m of the ocean continued to warm in 2022 and "it is expected that it will continue to warm in the future, causing changes that are irreversible on centennial to millennial time scales", the WMO said. Global mean sea levels continued to rise last year and the rate has doubled between the first decade of the record — 1993-2002 — and the most recent, 2013-2022.
The WMO recorded a list of destructive climate-related events over the past year. These include drought in east Africa, which has left around 37mn people in acute food insecurity, extensive flooding in Pakistan which affected 33mn people and left 8mn displaced, and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe. The latter was responsible for more than 15,000 excess deaths in Spain, Germany, the UK, France and Portugal, the WMO said.
The destructive and unavoidable effects of global warming, known as loss and damage, dominated the agenda at last year's UN Cop 27 climate summit, leading to the agreement to establish a dedicated loss and damage fund.
