ENEVA. KAZINFORM Last year, more glaciers melted in the Alps than ever before, the EU's Copernicus climate change service said on Thursday. Glaciers in the Alps lost more than 5 cubic kilometers (1.2 cubic miles) of ice, the European State of the Climate 2022 (ESOTC 2022) service said, adding that the summer was the warmest on record last year, Anadolu Agency reported. Summer temperatures were on average 1.4 degrees higher than in the reference period from 1991 to 2000. According to the Copernicus programme, temperatures in Europe are rising at about twice the global average. "The climate that awaits us will be very, very different from the climate that we grew up in," said Copernicus Program Director Carlo Buontempo. The summer of 2022, according to the Copernicus programme, was marked by a huge drought that affected more than a third of Europe and affected agriculture, transport and energy supplies. This was partly because there had been less snow than usual the previous winter, and huge heat waves in the summer had made matters worse. In southern Europe, there was also a significant increase in the number of days considered as extreme heat stress days. In addition, solar radiation was more intense in Europe than at any time in the last 40 years. The result was an above-average potential for solar energy production in many parts of the continent. Experts expect this trend to continue. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere did not decrease last year. On the contrary, the concentration of carbon dioxide and the extremely strong climate gas methane increased. Copernicus records go back to 1979. The Climate Change Service also uses data from ground stations, balloons, aircraft and satellites going back to 1950. Monthly data on temperatures, ice cover and other aspects are published using computer analysis.