The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has confirmed that 2016 was the hottest year on record, with average temperatures 1.1oC above pre-industrial levels.

Global governments have committed to keep temperature rises within 2oC, will have their work cut out for them, especially as these targets, first agreed in Paris in 2015 became legally binding last autumn. WMO released provisional figures showing 2016 was on track to become the warmest year on record in November last year, ahead of the COP 22 Climate Talks in Marrakech. 2016 is the third year running to have broken temperature records, with each year since 2014 being the world’s warmest since records began.

2016 temperatures were 0.83° Celsius above the long term average the long-term baseline period (1961-1990), and about 0.07°C warmer than the previous record set in 2015. Though the El Nino event caused additional warming last year, even without temperature increases linked to El Nino, 2016 would have broken temperature records.  

Commenting on the record, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said, “2016 was an extreme year for the global climate and stands out as the hottest year on record. But temperatures only tell part of the story. Long-term indicators of human-caused climate change reached new heights in 2016. Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations surged to new records. Both contribute to climate change.  

2016 also broke a series of other worrying records: CO2 levels rose over the significant threshold of 400 parts per million in the atmosphere last year. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and in the ocean, where it acidifies the water, for even longer.

Expanding on receding sea ice, Mr Taalas said, “We have also broken sea ice minimum records in the Arctic and Antarctic. Greenland glacier melt – one of the contributors to sea level rise _ started early and fast. Arctic sea ice was the lowest on record both at the start of the melt season in March and at the height of the normal refreezing period in October and November.»

“The Arctic is warming twice as fast a the global average. The persistent loss of sea ice is driving weather, climate and ocean circulation patterns in other parts of the world. We also have to pay attention to the potential release of methane from melting permafrost.”

Commenting on the worrying pattern, Professor Piers Forster, Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds, said, “Even if you remove the extra warming due to El Nino, 2016 was the warmest year ever recorded. Such warm years increase heavy rainfall and damage crops. 2017 will likely be cooler. However, unless we have a major volcanic eruption, I expect the record to be broken again within a few years.”

Also commenting, Hui Yang, visiting scientist to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, from Peking University, added, “One of the challenges of climate science is to understand how further general increases in the temperature of the planet will translate in to adjustments to weather features and including extreme events. If warming continues, society may need to increase preparations for and manage any risks associated with changing weather patterns.”