Arctic warming three times faster than the planet, report warns
May 20, 2021
by Pierre-Henry Deshayes
The Arctic has warmed three times more quickly than the planet as a whole, and faster than previously thought, a report warned on Thursday.
Arctic sea ice looks set to be an early victims of rising temperatures, with each fraction of a degree making a big difference: the chance of it disappearing entirely in summer is 10 times greater if Earth warms by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels compared to 1.5C, the goal set by the 2015 Paris Accord.
The alarming finding comes from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) in a report timed to coincide with a ministerial meeting this week of the Arctic Council in Reykjavik, which gathers countries bordering the region.
