2020 ties 2016 as hottest year on record, EU climate change service says

London, London, UK (Great Britain)

Last year has tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, the European Union's climate monitoring service said Friday.

The six years since 2015 are the six warmest ever registered, as are 20 of the last 21, evidence of a persistent and deepening trend, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported.

In 2020, temperatures globally were an average of 1.25 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) higher than in pre-industrial times, Copernicus said. The last six years were the world’s hottest on record.

“The extraordinary climate events of 2020 and the data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service show us that we have no time to lose,” said Matthias Petschke, Director for Space in the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. The bloc’s space programmes include the Copernicus earth observation satellites.

A preliminary tally found that 13 of last year’s disasters led to at least 188 deaths and costs of $46.6 billion, Smith said. NOAA was to release a complete survey of damages in 2020 at 1600 GMT (1100 a.m. EST) on Friday.

Last year also saw the highest temperature ever reliably recorded, when in August a California heatwave pushed the temperature at Death Valley in the Mojave Desert up to 54.4C (129.92°F).

The Arctic and northern Siberia continued to warm more quickly than the planet as a whole in 2020, with temperatures in parts of these regions averaging more than 6C above a 30-year average used as a baseline.

(with inputs from agencies)