The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Agency (C3S) announced Thursday that the world experienced the hottest January on record, continuing extreme heat fueled by climate change.
Last month surpassed the previous warmest January in 2020 in C3S records dating back to 1950.
The unusual month comes after 2023 ranked as the hottest year on Earth in world records since 1850, due to rising temperatures due to anthropogenic climate change and the El Niño phenomenon, which increases surface water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. .
Each month since June has been the world's hottest on record compared to the same month last year.
C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said: “We have just experienced not only the warmest January on record, but also a 12-month period with temperatures exceeding pre-industrial benchmarks by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to stop global temperatures from rising,” she says.
US scientists say there is a one in three chance that 2024 will be even hotter than last year, and a 99% chance that it will be in the top five hottest years.
El Niño began to weaken last month, with scientists suggesting it could give way to a colder La Niña condition later this year. Still, last month's global average sea surface temperature was the highest on record for January.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries agreed to work to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid causing more serious and irreversible consequences.
Despite exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius in 12 months, the world has yet to break the goal of the Paris Agreement, which refers to average global temperatures over several decades.
Some scientists say this goal is no longer realistically achievable, but to limit exceeding it and the deadly heat, drought and sea level rise it will have on people and ecosystems. is calling on governments to act more quickly to reduce CO2 emissions. As much as possible.