The world just had its warmest January on record, marking the first 12-month period in which average temperatures were 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, according to the United States’ climate change agency. The European Union said on Thursday (February 8).
2023 is already the planet’s hottest year on record since 1850, as human-caused climate change and El Nino – a weather pattern that warms surface waters in the eastern Pacific – pushed the heat higher elevation.
Matt Patterson, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oxford, said: “This is an important milestone to see the global average temperature over a 12-month period exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time. with pre-industrial temperatures.
The previous warmest January was in 2020, according to Copernicus Climate Change service (C3S) records dating back to 1950.
Countries agreed at UN climate talks in Paris in 2015 to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and set a more ideal target of below 1.5 degrees Celsius. degrees Celsius, the level considered critical to prevent the most serious consequences.
The first 12-month period exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius does not mean the Paris target has been missed, as the UN agreement covers average global temperatures over decades.
However, some scientists say the 1.5C target is no longer realistically achievable and call on countries to act faster to cut CO2 emissions to limit overshoots. pepper.
“Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to stop global temperatures from rising,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess.
“We are heading for disaster if we do not fundamentally change the way we produce and consume energy within a few years,” said Denmark’s Minister for Global Climate Policy Dan Jorgensen. We don’t have much time.”
Every month since June 2023 has been the world’s hottest on record. American scientists say 2024 has a one-third chance of being even hotter than last year and a 99 percent chance of ranking in the five warmest years.
Heat is hitting several countries in South America, a region experiencing summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Argentina endured a heat wave from January 21 to 31. Meanwhile, the heat caused forest fires that killed at least 131 people earlier this month in Chile.