Europe had second-warmest year on record in 2022, EU scientists say

Europe experienced its second-warmest year on record in 2022, European Union scientists said on Tuesday, as climate change unleashed record-breaking weather extremes that slashed crop yields, dried up rivers and led to thousands of deaths.

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said 2022 was also the world’s fifth-warmest year, by a small margin. C3S records date back to 1950, but other, longer datasets confirm 2022 was the world’s fifth-warmest year since at least 1850.

The last eight years were the world’s eight hottest on record, C3S said.

The planet is now 1.2C warmer than in pre-industrial times, as a result of human-caused climate change, C3S said. Copernicus said temperatures in Europe have increased by more than twice the global average over the last three decades.

“We are already experiencing the devastating consequences of our warming world,” said C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess, who called for urgent action to cut CO2 emissions and adapt to the changing climate.

Last summer was Europe’s hottest on record, smashing temperature records in countries including Italy, Spain and Croatia.

via REuters