FRANCIS LAW Today Online 22 Jan 16;
SINGAPORE — In line with earlier projections, last year was indeed the year when the heat was on, joining 1998 and 1997 as the warmest years on record for the island, with an annual mean temperature of 28.3°C.
Singapore was not alone in feeling the heat. According to a recent report by the National Climate Data Centre (NCDC) in the United States, last year was the warmest year on record for the planet.
In response to TODAY’s queries, the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) said that last month was the warmest December on record here, with a mean monthly temperature of 27.7°C, confirming earlier estimates.
The mean annual temperature here has been rising since 2012, which recorded 27.5°C.
The next joint warmest years on record are 2010 and 2002, with an annual mean temperature of 28.1°C.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) had said earlier that the record temperatures registered in 2015 could be attributed to the “strong El Nino events”.
The weather phenomenon refers to the warm phase of a temperature cycle in the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
According to the NCDC, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces recorded last year was 0.9°C above the 20th century average of 13.9°C — beating the previous record warmth of 2014 by 0.16°C.
The 0.9°C figure represents not only the fourth time that a global temperature record has been set this century, but is also the largest margin by which the previous record had been broken. The NCDC report also said that global temperatures were “strongly influenced” by the strong El Nino conditions.
Assistant Professor Winston Chow, from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Geography, described the NCDC’s latest temperature figures as “undoubtedly significant”.
“The increase compared to 2014 is very large. It’s consistent with (global) warming since 1970s. It’s an indicator that the warming ... is going unchecked.”
Asst Prof Chow added the temperature figures should serve as yet another warning that the advances made during the Paris climate talks in December should be met by action.
Associate Professor Matthias Roth, who is also from the same NUS department, said the figures “confirm the urgency for real emission cuts to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere”.
In the run-up to the climate talks in Paris, Singapore pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
However, Assoc Prof Roth said Singapore is “actually not cutting emissions”.
“When emissions will be stabilised in 2030, they will have increasedby about 20 per cent, compared to now,” he said. “What is needed, however, are drastic cuts in emissions to bring current greenhouse gas concentrations significantly below current levels,” he added. FRANCIS LAW
