New climate data are causing alarm

“Alarming new records” for sea levels, ocean heat and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were set in 2021, experts said.

The annual “state of the global climate report” – by the UN’S World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) – stated oceans were becoming more acidic as carbon dioxide dissolved into sea water, threatening wildlife, and it warned that extreme weather created food and water shocks, displaced millions of people and caused billions of dollars in losses in 2021. Average temperatures were 1.1C above those recorded in the 19th century.

Last year, though cooler than recent years due to the prevailing La Niña weather pattern, was one of the seven warmest on record.

However, the years since 2015 were the hottest seven on record. And it is “matter of time” before temperatures outstrip 2016, the warmest year on record, the WMO report said.