COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The period from 2000-09 will be considered one of the warmest on record, a U.N. agency said Tuesday at the Climate Change Conference in Denmark.
Additionally, the World Meteorological Organization said 2009 will rank among the 10 warmest years since 1850. The WMO said temperatures for the current year stand between 0.6 degrees and 1 degree Fahrenheit higher than the average from 1961-90. 2009 is expected to be the fifth warmest of the last 160 years when data are finalized.
The WMO said the period from 2000-09 was warmer than the 1990-99 decade, which was itself warmer than the 1980-89 time span.
Forecasters cited El Nino conditions and human-caused global climate change for the increases. Only in North America were lower average temperatures recorded.
"We are in a warming trend -- we have no doubt about it," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said.
