PARIS, Jan 10, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The last seven years have been the hottest 
on record globally "by a clear margin", the European Union's climate 
monitoring service reported Monday, as it raised the alarm over sharp 
increases in record concentrations of methane in the atmosphere.

   Countries around the world have been blasted by a relentless assault of 
weather disasters linked to global warming in recent years, including record-
shattering wildfires across Australia and Siberia, a once-in-1000-years 
heatwave in North America and extreme rainfall that caused massive flooding 
in Asia, Africa, the US and Europe.

   In its latest annual assessment, the Copernicus Climate Change Service 
(C3S) confirmed that 2021 had joined the unbroken warm streak since 2015. 

   It found that last year was the fifth warmest on record globally, 
marginally warmer than 2015 and 2018. Accurate measurements go back to the 
mid-19th century. 

   The annual average temperature was 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-
industrial levels, measured between 1850 and 1900, C3S said.

   That was despite the cooling effect of the natural La Nina weather 
phenomenon.

   Overall, the monitoring service found the last seven years "have been the 
warmest years on record by a clear margin".

   "2021 was yet another year of extreme temperatures with the hottest summer 
in Europe, heatwaves in the Mediterranean, not to mention the unprecedented 
high temperatures in North America," said C3S Director Carlo Buontempo.

   "These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take 
decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards 
reducing net carbon emissions." 

   - Methane surge -

   The C3S also monitored atmospheric concentrations of the planet-warming 
gases carbon dioxide and methane, finding that both had increased with no 
sign of a slowdown. 

   Methane particularly has gone up "very substantially", to an annual record 
of about 1,876 parts per billion (ppb). 

   Growth rates for 2020 and 2021 were 14.6 ppb per year and 16.3 ppb per 
year, respectively. That is more than double the average annual growth rate 
seen over the previous 17 years. 

   But an array of human-caused and natural sources made it hard to pinpoint 
why there had been such a strong increase in recent years, C3S said. 

   Methane (CH4) is the gas most responsible for global warming after CO2. 
While more short-lived in the atmosphere, it is many times more potent than 
CO2. 

   Natural sources include wetlands, while human-induced sources are leaks 
from natural gas and oil production, coal mining and landfills, as well as 
rice paddies, livestock and manure handling.

   Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring 
Service, which tracks greenhouse gas increases, said observational evidence 
was crucial in the effort to avoid "climate catastrophe". 

   Reducing the amount of methane seeping into the air would quickly 
translate into a slowdown of rising temperatures, and help close the so-
called emissions gap between the Paris Agreement target of a 1.5C cap on 
warming and the 2.7C we are heading for even if all nations honour their 
carbon-cutting promises.

   That has spurred interest from policymakers keen to find the quickest ways 
to wrestle down emissions.

   At the COP26 climate summit last year, around a hundred nations joined an 
initiative to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade. 
Noticeably absent was China.

   The oil and gas industry has the biggest potential for rapid reductions, 
especially through the detection and repair of gas leaks during production 
and transport.

   While global warming may seem gradual, its impact on extreme events is 
"dramatic", said Rowan Sutton, of Britain's National Centre for Atmospheric 
Science at Reading University.

   "We should see the record breaking 2021 events, such as the heatwave in 
Canada and floods in Germany, as a punch in the face to make politicians and 
public alike wake up to the urgency of the climate emergency," he told the 
Science Media Centre. 

   "Moreover, the continued increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in the 
atmosphere screams out that the underlying causes have yet to be addressed."