By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Spain experienced its hottest year on record last year, the Environment Ministry said on Friday.
This came a day after the parliament passed a landmark bill to combat climate change.
In a year marked by extreme weather events and heatwaves, Spain’s average temperature reached 14.8 degrees Celsius, according to the ministry, around 1.7 degrees hotter than the pre-industrial average, and above the 1.5 degree target for the world set out in the Paris agreement.
The findings echo recent studies by the European Union and the United Nations, which found last year was the hottest on record in Europe and among the top three warmest years globally.
Seven of the 10 hottest years in Spain occurred in the last decade, according to the report, which warned the average temperature could rise by as much as 5 degrees above pre-industrial average by the end of the century.
Concentrations of greenhouse gases also reached historic highs, despite a temporary reduction in emissions caused by measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said.
After several years of parliamentary wrangling, lawmakers on Thursday passed Spain’s first national climate-change law, which aims to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
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