The Climate change. 2020 was the hottest year in Europe, according to the European Union Copernicus survey.

Another clear indication that climate change is turning our lives upside down is that even the Arctic in 2020 faced a summer of intense fires caused by snow.

The temperature in Siberia is 4 degrees Celsius above average, as announced today by the European Union earthquake program “Copernicus” on Thursday (22.04.2021).

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Globally, 2020 is one of the two warmest years of 2020. However, the “Copernicus” report on Europe’s climate is the hottest in Europe, with the average temperature exceeding 0.4 degrees Celsius for five warm years (all last decade).

Copernicus-based scientist Fria Wamberg said temperatures are rising every season in Europe.

Climate change: The hottest winter

The winter of 2020 is 3.4 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature recorded in the winter of 1981-2020.

In the northeastern part of the continent, mainly in the Arctic regions of Siberia, extreme heat was evident, where the hottest year on record was recorded, with temperatures averaging 4.3 degrees Celsius.

Overall, the Arctic experienced its second warmest year, with temperatures averaging 2.2 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2020 average.

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2020 also saw the hottest autumn in Europe, with summer heat waves not being more intense or prolonged than in recent years, although record temperatures have been recorded in some regions, as well as in the Nordic countries and France.

As a result, Arctic ice has sunk to its lowest level.

Beyond the Arctic Circle, a record temperature of 38 degrees Celsius was recorded in the Russian city of Verkhoynsk, and the “zombie” wildfire spread across Siberia, following a dry and cold winter.

“It was (…) the hottest year on Arctic Siberia,” Wamberg told a news conference.

Climate change: carbon dioxide

Atmospheric concentrations of gases causing the greenhouse effect, mainly carbon dioxide and methane, increased by 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively, from 2019 to 2020, the highest level since 2003.

Copernicus’ fourth report concludes that the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gases and reducing global warming by 1.5% Celsius are far from the same. To achieve this goal, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 7.6% each year from 2020 to 2030.

“It is imperative that we work,” said Jean-Noel Tepot, director of Copernicus. He added that all indicators were going in the wrong direction.

Source: ΑΠΕ –

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