Global warming has accelerated since the 1970s and broken more countries’ temperature records than ever before in the first decade of the new millennium, UN climate experts say.

Last year was the ninth-warmest since record-keeping began in 1850, despite the cooling effect of the weather pattern called La Nina, the World Meteorological Organisation says.

THE protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun’s most damaging rays — ultraviolet radiation — has thinned about 40% this winter, a record drop, the UN weather agency has said.

THE UN weather agency says 2010 is “almost certain” to rank among the three hottest years on record.

THIS decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the UN weather agency reported yesterday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.

THE year 2003, marked by a sweltering summer and drought across huge swaths of the planet, was the third hottest in more than 150 years, the UN weather agency said yesterday.