2022 Year of Climate Extremes Confirmed by Latest Global Report

Posted: January 15, 2023 12:43 pm

A new report from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service is confirming what most climate experts have been warning about for years. The last eight years have been confirmed as the eighth warmest years in recorded history on the heels of an increase of gases that continue to trap heat in the atmosphere at dangerous levels.

Details of Copernicus Report

The Copernicus report detailed the year 2022 as a time of climate extremes. The year saw a number of extreme weather events, including deadly flooding in Asia and Australia, heatwaves in Europe, and a monster hurricane in Florida.

The new data detailed that the average annual global temperature climbed 1.2 degrees Celsius over that reading in the pre-industrial era of the years 1850 to 1900. This translates to the eighth consecutive year of temperature increase of at least 1 degree beyond this time.

This number is key because the countries involved in the 2015 Paris Agreement agreed to attempt to keep the temperature increase below 2 degrees over pre-industrial levels with the ideal benchmark being 1.5 degrees. The 1.5-degree mark was reached after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified this number as the level in which extreme weather events become a severe problem on a global scale. Experts warn that even the most incremental increase in temperatures can trigger irreversible consequences.

Increase in Concentration of CO2 in Atmosphere

The latest report also went into detail about the increase in the concentration of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere. For instance, the amount of CO2 levels in the atmosphere measured about 280 parts per million prior to when fossil fuels were burned in significant quantities. This number is now at about 417 parts per million, a worrisome increase of 2.1 parts per million when compared to just one year ago.

According to the IPCC, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by about 50% by 2030 in order to hit the desired net zero amount by 2050. This goal needs to be reached if the world hopes to suppress global warming hovering at the benchmark at 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial measurements.

Climate experts are in agreement that the data detailing the concentration of greenhouse gasses and the increase in temperatures is not coincidental. There is a direct link between the increase in temperatures and greenhouse gasses and the rise of extreme climate events.

What is also concerning to scientists who follow temperature trends is that 2022 was warmer than usual even though it was a La Niña year. This weather pattern typically comes with global temperatures that are cooler than usual. As such, experts worry that the last three years of a La Niña pattern have actually been hiding the impacts of climate change. The alarm bells are sounding about where the global average temperature will land when the El Niño pattern takes hold again. Most climate experts are predicting that the world will make the transition between the two patterns later this year as there are already signs that the La Niña pattern is weakening.

Multiple Global Reports Confirm Warming Trend

The latest report from Copernicus is in line with the new data from the UK Met Office that detailed that the UK just recorded its hottest year on record. The average temperature soared to over 10 degrees Celsius for the first time in recorded history.

In addition, the French national meteorological service also said last week that 2022 came in as hottest year in the country since records started in 1900. This report also detailed that eight of the hottest 10 years on record have happened since 2010, speaking to the obvious trends as of late. The authors of the report warned that these temperatures may become the new normal in the years to come.

Adding more evidence to global warming was the report from Italy’s Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences. This report demonstrated that 2022 was also the hottest year on record for Italy. Lastly, the German National Meteorological Service confirmed that 2022 was at minimum tied for the warmest year in the record books with 2018. This record may be broken entirely once the final data is fully analyzed and recorded.

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