Last Year, 2020, was 1.25 C above the long-term average which is slightly lower than the record temperature of 2016. At some location, the temperature recorded was 6C warmer than the long-term average. Last month, World Meteorological Organisations predicted 2020 to be one of the three warmest years on record. Reports from other organisations like NASA, the UK Met Office is to be released.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service data is based on the Sentinel satellite which monitors the Earth from orbit and also the ground level temperature. The 2016 year had a warmer effect due to the El-Nino while the 2020 year had a cooler effect in the second half due to La-Nina. The major change in the overall temperature is due to the heating of the Arctic and Serbia area. Europe recorded a 0.4C higher temperature than 2019. The long- term period average temperature is the average temperature between 1850-1900 average temperature which is often described as the pre-industrial period.
"The human-caused build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere is accelerating," said Prof Richard Betts from the Met Office.
"It took over 200 years for levels to increase by 25%, but now just over 30 years later we are approaching a 50% increase."
"Reversing this trend and slowing the atmospheric CO2 rise will need global emissions to reduce, and bringing them to a halt will need global emissions to be brought down to net zero. This needs to happen within about the next 30 years if global warming is to be limited to 1.5C."