Inflation at peak

The past seven years were the warmest on record as climate change continued apace, despite the cooling effect of the La Niña weather pattern in 2021, the United Nations has found.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) analysed the six main global temperature data sets, which revealed that last year was the seventh hottest to date, at 1.11°C above pre-industrial levels.

“The continued onslaught of record years, including the seven warmest having occurred since 2015, is precisely what we expect to see due to human-caused planetary warming,” says Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University.

Governments at the COP26 climate summit in November reaffirmed their commitment to trying to hold temperature rises to 1.5°C and well below 2°C at worst. But emissions reductions pledges currently have the world on course for 2.4°C or more. 2021 is the seventh year in a row where temperatures have been more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels.