The Earth has experienced 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate monitoring agency said on Thursday, the first time on record that scientists have called a “warning to humanity”.
The naturally occurring El Niño phenomenon has exacerbated climate change, leading to record temperatures in 2023 that could become the hottest year in 100,000 years, with storms, droughts and fires battering the planet.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said the extreme conditions will continue until 2024, confirming that temperatures from February 2023 to January 2024 were 1.52 degrees Celsius above the 19th-century baseline.
Scientists say this is a serious foreshadowing of the key 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold in the Paris climate agreement, but it does not mean a permanent breach of limits measured for decades.
“We are approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius and we see costs, social costs and economic costs,” said Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
“1.5 is a very large number and it is causing us serious harm, including heat waves, droughts, floods, intensifying storms and water shortages around the world. This is the lesson for us in 2023.”
Recent months have seen a series of extreme weather events around the world, including devastating droughts in the Amazon, sweltering winter heat in parts of southern Europe, deadly wildfires in South America and record rainfall in California.
“This is clearly a warning to humanity that we are moving faster than expected towards the agreed 1.5 degrees Celsius limits that we signed up for,” Rockström told AFP, adding that the end of El Niño Later, the temperature may drop.
Copernicus said last month was the hottest January on record, with the highest monthly temperatures on record for the eighth month in a row, and overall temperatures 1.66 degrees Celsius higher than the estimated average January temperature for the pre-industrial reference period 1850 to 1900. .
Samantha Burgess, C3S, said: “2024 is shaping up to be another record-breaking month, not only is it the hottest January on record, but we’ve just had 12 months with temperatures A period that is more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial reference period.” Deputy Director.
Earth-heating emissions, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels, have continued to rise in recent years, and scientists say emissions need to be cut by nearly half within this decade, with the United Nations’ IPCC climate panel warning that global temperatures could fall by 1.5 degrees Celsius by the early 2030s.
Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, told AFP: “A few very hot years in a row is bad news for nature and for those who feel the effects of these extreme years. .”
“Unless global emissions are urgently reduced to zero, the world will soon exceed safe limits under the Paris climate agreement.”
“New record”
Copernicus said January temperatures were well above average in northwest Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, eastern Canada and southern Europe.
But conditions were below average in parts of Northern Europe, western Canada and the central United States.
While parts of the world experienced an unusually wet January, drier conditions were seen across large swaths of North America, the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Copernicus said Chile has been battling intense summer heat and drought, with the dry climate fueling wildfires.
That situation continued into February, when fires that started on Friday tore through communities along the coast of Valparaiso over the weekend, killing more than 130 people.
Copernicus said El Niño, which warms sea surfaces in the South Pacific and contributes to warmer global weather, has begun to weaken in the equatorial Pacific.
Meanwhile, sea surface temperatures continue to break records.
Rockstrom said 2023 “is the year ocean dynamics go crazy, off the charts.”
Since the beginning of the industrial age, oceans have covered 70% of the Earth, absorbing 90% of the excess heat generated by carbon pollution from human activities, keeping the Earth’s surface habitable.
Warmer ocean temperatures mean more moisture in the atmosphere, leading to increasingly erratic weather, such as high winds and heavy rainfall.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
