The UN  reported this year to “very likely” be the hottest on record, making it the third consecutive year that record temperatures have been broken.  It also noted that 16 of the 17 hottest years recorded have been this century.

Preliminary data through October indicated global average temperatures to be 1.2 Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial levels, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Monday.  This puts the figures close to the limits set by the Global Climate Change Agreement that was adopted in Paris last year by 200 countries which had set a goal for temperature rise since the industrial revolution to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius.

Some of the temperature rise has been attributed to an El Nino weather phenomenon and the ongoing burning of fossil fuels, which has led to the melting of Greenland’s ice caps and has damaged Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

According to the UN, the most damaging weather events this year were Hurricane Matthew, which killed 500 people in Haiti, and the Yangtze basin floods in China which killed 310, causing an estimated $14 billion (13 billion Euros) in damage.

“Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.  “‘Once in a generation’ heat waves and flooding are becoming more regular.  Sea level rise has increased exposure to storm surges associated with tropical cyclones.”

The WMO indicated that if 2016 turned out to be the hottest year on record, it would mean that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century, while the remaining one was only one century ago — as recently as 1998!

Source: Deutsche Welle