2019 was second-hottest year in recorded history: UN.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the past decade was the hottest on record, with 2019 confirmed as the second-hottest year in history. The hottest year ever recorded was 2016.

'The average global temperature has risen by about 1.1AdegC since the pre-industrial era and ocean heat content is at a record level,' Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said.

'On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, we are heading towards a temperature increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of century.'

The WMO's findings are based on leading data sets from around the world.

"The year 2020 has started out where 2019 left off, with high-impact weather and climate-related events," said Taalas. "Unfortunately, we expect to see much extreme weather throughout 2020 and the coming decades, fueled by record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."

Taalas pointed specifically to the bushfires ravaging Australia, which have killed at...