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2015, warmest year on record: WMO

Xinhua, November 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The year 2015 was the warmest year on record to date, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced here on Tuesday.

In a report to the UN climate change conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, WMO said global temperatures in 2015 were 0.76 degrees Celsius above the average of the standard 1961-1990 reference period.

The year 2015 was also the first year in which global temperatures were more than one degree Celsius above the pre-industrial era, the report said.

According to the report, 2011-2015 was the warmest five-year period on record globally and for all continents except Africa (second warmest), as temperatures for the period were 0.57 degrees Celsius above the average of the 1961-1990 period.

Sea-surface temperatures for the same period were above the average in most of the world, except in parts of the Southern Ocean and the eastern South Pacific, the report said.

The record high temperatures were accompanied by rising sea levels and declines in Arctic sea-ice extent, continental glaciers and snow cover in the northern hemisphere.

All these signs confirmed the long-term warming trend caused by greenhouse gases, as carbon dioxide levels reached the significant milestone of 400 parts per million for the first time in 2015, the report said.

"The Paris Agreement aims at limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts towards 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This report confirms that the average temperature in 2015 had already reached the 1-degree mark," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Climate change "has increased the risks of extreme events such as heatwaves, drought, record rainfall and damaging floods," he added. Endit