Published: Just now
The month of October was the warmest ever recorded in Europe.
The temperature has been almost two degrees above average.
– That’s a lot, says Mikael Luhr, meteorologist at Klart.
It has been warmer than usual in several parts of Europe during October.
This is evident from data from the EU’s climate change service Copernicus (C3S), which notes a temperature that was almost two degrees above average during the reference period 1991–2020, TT reports.
– It is mainly in Western Europe that it has been record hot and this is due to two things. Partly it is high pressure that has been over the area for a long time and partly it is air currents from the southwest that have brought up warm air from Africa, says Mikael Luhr, meteorologist at Klart.
Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Climate Change Service, comments on the record figures.
19.5 degrees in Skåne
“The serious consequences of climate change are very visible today and we need ambitious climate action at COP27 to ensure emission reductions that can stabilize temperatures close to the Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5 degrees,” she says in a comment on the figures.
Even in Sweden, as in the western parts of Europe, it has been unusually warm.
– It was 19.5 degrees in Kristianstad on October 28. It was because the warm air from the southwest reached all the way up to us, says Mikael Luhr.
And the seasonally high temperatures will continue for a while longer in Sweden.
– This weekend will bring extremely mild air, so it will be 10-15 degrees in Götaland and Svealand and maybe also southern Norrland, says Mikael Luhr and notes:
– It is very warm for being in the middle of November.
The climate meeting is now underway
Leaders of over a hundred countries are currently participating in the opening of the climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The countries of the world have promised to try to keep global warming well below 2 degrees and preferably 1.5 degrees – but so far the national commitments are not enough.
Currently, the countries’ collective climate plans rather lead to a warming of around 2.5 degrees by the end of the century. Russia’s war in Ukraine has also led to setbacks in climate work, among other things due to increased use of oil and gas.
Nor have the rich countries lived up to their promise of 100 billion dollars annually in climate finance to vulnerable countries, something that breeds distrust in the negotiations.
Facts
COP27
The UN climate summit COP27 is held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt from 6-18 November. Then representatives from all over the world gather to discuss and negotiate how the global climate work under the Paris Agreement is to be implemented.
In the Paris Agreement of 2015, most of the world’s countries agreed to keep the increase in the global average temperature well below 2 degrees, and most preferably below 1.5 degrees, compared to pre-industrial times.
But the countries’ plans to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases are far from sufficient to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, according to a compilation that the UN climate secretariat UNFCCC has made of all climate plans ahead of the meeting. If the plans are followed, the world is instead headed for around 2.5 degrees of warming before the end of the century.
Source: TT
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