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Year 2016 on track to be hottest on record: UN agency

Xinhua, November 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that the year of 2016 is on track to be the hottest on record, said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq on Monday.

Preliminary data show that global temperatures are approximately 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a new assessment made by the WMO.

"The WMO also says that long-term climate change indicators are record-breaking, with concentrations of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continuing to increase to new records," Haq told a daily briefing.

"Arctic sea ice remains at low levels, and there has been significant and early melting of the Greenland ice sheet," he added.

Petteri Taalas, the WMO's secretary-general, has said that because of climate change, "once-in-a-generation" heat waves and flooding are becoming more regular.

The Paris Agreement, a global action plan to combat change has entered into force earlier this month. The deal asks for efforts to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and seeks to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Enditem