Thread by @dana1981

My retrospective on the climate year of 2021 and look forward to 2022 in @CC_Yale today. Lots of important events are happening in the worlds of climate science and policy! Article and quick thread 🧵below:
yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/12/2021-w…

2021 was the sixth- or seventh-hottest year on record, hotter than any year on record prior to 2015, and the hottest La Niña year ever recorded. It was consistent with the human-caused global warming trend of about 0.2°C per decade:

The world was battered by extreme weather disasters, including rain deluges and floods on nearly every continent, deadly heat like in the Pacific Northwest, harmful droughts, terrible wildfires, and a "bonkers" hurricane season.

https://twitter.com/CBSMornings/status/1423982956281049089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1423982956281049089%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fd-4479369831948752984.ampproject.net%2F2111242025001%2Fframe.html

We got a new @IPCC_CH report that concluded humans are most likely responsible for 100% of the ~1.1°C global warming over the past 150 years, and it's worsening extreme heat, droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes.

#COP26 in Glasgow made incremental but insufficient progress, as COPs always do. There were some good agreements to curb deforestation, methane emissions, phase-down coal use and fossil fuel subsidies, and some important new net-zero pledges from countries like India & Nigeria.

In the US, the House of Reps passed Build Back Better with $555 billion in climate investments - America's first ever major federal climate package. The Senate will likely pass it relatively soon (pending @Sen_JoeManchin) and send it to Biden's desk in January 2022.

It's not enough to meet America's Paris pledge of 50% greenhouse gas emissions cuts below 2005 levels by 2030; closer to 40%, unless Senate Democrats manage to convince Manchin to add a price on carbon pollution, which remains a possibility.

Heading into 2022, most of the U.S. is forecast to see a relatively hot winter & the SW drought may persist, leading to yet another dangerous wildfire season. COP27 in Egypt will be important. A US midterm election will likely grind the gears of domestic climate policy to a halt.