Europe’s hottest summer on record would not have happened without human-induced climate change, the Met Office has said.

Last summer, forecasters recorded temperatures close to 1C above the 1991 to 2020 average across Europe.

During the record-breaking hot spell, a new European maximum temperature record was set in Syracuse, Sicily, where temperatures reached 48.8C, beating the previous European high of 48C recorded in Athens in 1977.

Summer weather June 18th 2020
Cars drive through water after a river burst its banks in Bristol during flooding last summer (Ben Birchall/PA)

Scientists then analysed data by using a large collection of computer simulations to compare the climate as it is today, with about 1C of global warming, with the climate as it would have been without human influence, using the same methods as in past peer-reviewed studies.

They concluded the spike in temperatures would have been “impossible” without human-induced climate change.

The researchers added that without climate change, the rise would have taken place only once in 10,000 years.

Met Office climate attribution scientist, Dr Nikos Christidis, who led the analysis, said: “This latest attribution study is another example of how climate change is already making our weather extremes more severe. Our analysis of the European summer of 2021 shows that what is now a one in three-year event would have been almost impossible without human-induced climate change.”

Science fellow Professor Peter Stott, who researches climate attribution at the Met Office Hadley Centre, said: “We can be more confident than we’ve ever been about linking extreme weather events to climate change.

“The increasing chances of these extreme events continue to rise as long as we continue to emit greenhouse gases. The science is clear that the faster we reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, the more we can avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.”

Cop26 – Glasgow
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, India’s PM Narendra Modi, Australia’s premier Scott Morrison, and Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness during a UK-India event at the Cop26 summit (Phil Noble/PA)

The new analysis comes as leaders and policy makers from across the world come together for negotiations at Cop26 in Glasgow.

Several countries have outlined pledges at the conference, including India, which announced it would cut emissions to net zero by 2070, China, which has said it will achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 and a net zero commitment by 2050 from Vietnam.

Scientists have said there needs to be a global goal to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 to avoid temperature rises above 1.5C and to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.