The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said a series of global datasets showed 2021 was the seventh year in a row where the temperature has been more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels.

An assessment collating the six datasets, including one compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia (UEA), reveals that 2021 was around 1.1°C warmer than the 1850-1900 average.

This was despite the presence in 2020-2022 of La Niña events, a large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean and changes in tropical atmospheric circulation, which temporarily cool global temperatures.

The Met Office and UEA’s dataset puts 2021 as the joint sixth-warmest year on record, while other datasets put it between the fifth and seventh warmest, with small differences between the different analyses.

The WMO said global warming and other climate impacts were expected to continue due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere...