2021 was the fifth-hottest year on record as emissions surge

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service says the last seven years were the warmest ‘by a clear margin’ since records began. The last seven years were the warmest on record, with 2021 5th but with a small margin to 2015 and 2018. #CopernicusClimate #C3S pic.twitter.com/1sbG5cLdVg — Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) January 10, 2022As greenhouse gas emissions change the planet’s climate, the long-term warming trend has continued. Global levels of CO2 and methane, the main greenhouse gases, continued to climb, and both hit record highs in 2021. Scientists concluded that climate change had made the floods at least 20 percent more likely.