Deutsche Welle :
Every month over the past year has seen temperatures break previous records, in what the director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) calls a “shocking” 12-month streak.
Temperatures in May broke records for the 12th month in a row, reaching 1.52°C above preindustrial levels, according to C3S data released on Wednesday. that marks the 11th month that temperatures have climbed beyond 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
“While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend,” C3S director Carlo Buontempo said in the report.
In 2015, governments agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C as part of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Average global temperatures over the past 12 months reached 1.63°C above levels measured from 1850 to 1900, before industrialization. However, it does not mean the 1.5 limit is broken – average temperatures are measured over decades rather than individual years. So far, the global average temperatures rise is estimated to be 1.2 – 1.3°C.
The year 2023 was the hottest on record, with temperatures fueled by climate change, which is driven by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, but also influenced by the naturally occurring El Nino phenomenon, which typically increases temperatures.
Still, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in a report, also released on Wednesday, that at least one year would likely exceed 1.5°C above preindustrial levels by 2028.
“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat. Our planet is trying to tell us something, but we don’t seem to be listening,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs, we are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger. But we are also the solution.”
Global warming is leading to more extreme weather patterns, with climate change linked to longer and hotter heat waves, heavier rainfall in some places, and the conditions driving droughts and wildfires in others.