![]() Higher greenhouse gas concentrations would make regional variations even more pronounced. Precipitation averaged over the mid-latitude land areas of the Northern Hemisphere has increased since 1951, while other areas such as Southeast Asia and some parts of Africa have observed a decrease in precipitation. ![]() TemperatureĬlimate change is increasing spatial variation in precipitation patterns and is expected to make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier in general although there could be a few exceptions. For Australia, it was the fourth‑warmest year on record, while Mexico experienced the highest temperatures ever recorded in the months of May, July and November. Japan and Korea reached their heat record in 2020. It was the eighth‑warmest year on record for China. Major parts of Asia also saw a notable warmth in 2020. The annual mean temperature of Europe 2020 was the warmest year on record, at more than 1.6 ☌ above the 1981-2010 average. Many European countries including the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland had their warmest year in 2020. Only four IEA countries, Canada, India, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, recorded a slower increase in temperature than 0.020 ☌ per year. Turkey, Central Europe (including Slovak Republic, Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary), Poland and the Baltic countries saw the greatest increases to temperatures. During the past two decades, 34% of IEA member and association countries recorded a steeper increase in temperatures, over 0.042 ☌ per year while the world average was 0.031 ☌. Warming temperatures pose a significant challenges to the majority of IEA member and association countries. The temperature of northern Eurasia was more than five degrees above the average of 1981-2010, while south-western United States, northern and western South America and Central America saw a notable rise in temperature as well. In particular, the Northern Hemisphere land and ocean surface temperatures were the highest on record. The global mean temperature reached 1.2☐.1 ☌ above the pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in 2020, which was the second‑warmest year on record. Eight out of the ten warmest years occurred during the last decade. The last decade (2011-2020) was the warmest decade since records began in 1880. For a more complete picture, the assessment will need to be expanded to include various climate hazards (such as, sea-level rise and melting glaciers) and other aspects of climate risk, exposure and vulnerability. Since the assessment does not cover all aspects of climate risk, the results may have limitations in capturing a full picture of climate risk for each country. The level of climate hazard of each country is determined by a combination of these four aspects: warming, floods, droughts and tropical cyclones. Most of the data has been extracted from the IEA Weather for Energy Tracker and the INFORM Risk Index. This article assesses the level of climate hazard in terms of temperature, precipitation and cyclones for each IEA member and association country. Vulnerability is the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. Exposure indicates the presence of assets, services, resources and infrastructure that could be adversely affected. Hazard refers to the potential occurrence of climate-related physical events or trends that may cause damage and loss. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate risk results from the interaction of hazard, exposure and vulnerability.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |