00:00 For anyone living in Europe last year, the latest European State of the Climate report
00:04 will come as no great surprise.
00:07 According to the study, the continent experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022 and its
00:14 second warmest year ever.
00:16 The report also reveals that temperatures across Europe are rising at twice the global
00:20 average, with the region having experienced 2.2 degrees Celsius of warming since pre-industrial
00:27 times.
00:28 "This combination of heatwaves and much warmer than average conditions across the year leads
00:34 to increased heat stress and we know from our data that the heat stress that European
00:41 citizens were under in 2022 was the highest that they'd ever been under."
00:46 These high temperatures, combined with low rainfall, also resulted in widespread drought
00:52 throughout the year, while summer wildfires caused record levels of carbon emissions.
00:58 "The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for 2022 was the highest that there has ever
01:06 been.
01:07 So we have ice core records and other paleoclimate records that go back for Antarctic and for
01:15 hundreds of thousands of years.
01:17 So we really know empirically that the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are the
01:23 highest they've been in an incredibly long time."
01:26 The effects were felt everywhere, even in colder areas.
01:30 According to the report, the Alps lost more than five cubic kilometres of ice.
01:35 Meanwhile, exceptional September heatwaves across Greenland resulted in record-breaking
01:41 ice sheet melt there as well.
01:43 The world is moving towards an El Nino weather pattern, which could further drive up global
01:49 temperatures.
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