The pause in global warming during the past decade is because more heat than expected is being absorbed by the deep oceans, according to scientists.
Rather than suggesting that global warming has stopped, the recent levelling-off of surface temperatures simply means that heat is being stored up and could fuel rapid temperature increases in the future.
The slower rise in temperatures since 1998 has repeatedly been cited by sceptics as a sign that the climate is less sensitive than previously thought to greenhouse gases.
The average rate of warming was 0.17C in each decade from 1970 to 1998, but only 0.04C a decade from 1998 to 2012. This is at the lower limit of the temperature increase predicted by climate models, and the mismatch between…