Met Office slays myth that global warming has stopped

Responding to the publication today (26 January 2015) by the UK Met Office of figures showing that 2014 was jointly with 2010 the hottest year globally since records began in 1850, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said:

“The Met Office results confirm those already published by the Japanese Meteorological Agency, NASA and the United States National Climatic Data Center, which have all independently estimated global mean surface temperature in 2014. The Met Office has now shown that both the UK and the world as a whole have not experienced a warmer year than 2014 since records began. These findings slay the myth promoted by climate change ‘sceptics’ that global warming has stopped, and should make it even more difficult for politicians, particularly the United States Congress, to deny the scientific evidence that the Earth’s temperature is rising in response to emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of oil, coal and gas.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (https://www.cccep.ac.uk/) is hosted by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science. It is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (https://www.esrc.ac.uk/). The Centre’s mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous, innovative research.
2. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (https://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham) was launched at the London School of Economics and Political Science in October 2008. It is funded by The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment (https://www.granthamfoundation.org/).