2001-2011 among warmest on record

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Wednesday released its provisional annual statement on the state of the global climate, where it says that the years 2001-2011 were all among the warmest on record, a UN spokesman said here. "The UN Agency says also that the first ten months indicate that 2012 will most likely be no exception despite the cooling influence of La Nina early in the year," the deputy UN spokesman, Eduardo del Buey, said at a daily news briefing here. The agency said that the January-October period this year was the ninth warmest such period since records began in 1850. The global land and ocean surface temperature for the period was about 0.45 degrees higher than the 1961-1990 average of 14.2 degrees, according to the statement. During the first 10 months of 2012, above-average temperatures affected most of the nation's land surface areas, except for Australia and parts of northern China, it said. "The World Meteorological Organization also highlighted the unprecedented melt of the Arctic sea ice and multiple weather and climate extremes which affected many parts of the world," del Buey said. The statement was released on Wednesday to inform negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Conference which started in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, the spokesman added. Final updates and figures for the 2012 will be published in March 2013, WMO said.