The 2021 average temperature was 1.1-1.2C above the pre-industrial level around 150 years ago, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
And the amount of warming gases in our atmosphere continued to increase. Governments are committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C to curb climate change.
But scientists have warned that time is fast running out.
Europe lived through its warmest summer, and temperature records in western US and Canada were broken by several degrees.