“These latest figures from the Copernicus Climate Change Service unfortunately highlight that we will exceed the 1.5 degree Celsius limit temporarily and with increasing frequency“on a monthly basis,” according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary General Celeste Saulo.
The crucial threshold of 1.5°C refers to the temperature increase above pre-industrial levels since 1850.
Long term picture
“However, It is important to emphasise that temporary excesses do not mean that the 1.5 degrees Celsius target will be permanently lost. “Because this refers to long-term warming, at least two decades from now,” she added.
Efforts to limit the Earth’s long-term average surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century were officially endorsed under the Paris Agreemententered into force in 2016.
The scientific community warns that warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius could lead to increasingly severe consequences of climate change and extreme weather events, stressing the importance of every fraction of a degree.
For example, every 0.1 degrees Celsius According to the WMO, the UN weather agency, the increase is causing “clearly observed increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme temperatures and precipitation, as well as agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions”.
Extreme weather patterns
WMO has warned that even at current levels of warming, the world faces devastating climate impacts. More extreme heat waves, rainfall and droughts, glacier decline and accelerating sea level rise are already battering the planet.
Extreme heat also causes the highest death rate of all extreme weather events, with an estimated 489,000 heat-related deaths per year between 2000 and 2019according to a WMO report 2023.
The record sea surface temperature is also the highest value ever recorded for the month of June. These record-breaking temperatures are of “major concern for vital marine ecosystems and They also provide energy to strengthen tropical cyclones – as we saw with Hurricane Beryl,” said Ms. Saulo.
Sea ice at the poles is also being affected: according to satellite data, sea ice at the North Pole was three percent below average in June, while sea ice at Antarctica was twelve percent below average.
Highlights around the world
Globally, temperatures in Europe rose most above average in the southeastern regions and Turkey.
Outside Europe, the highest above-average temperatures were found in eastern Canada, the western United States and Mexico, Brazil, northern Siberia, the Middle East, North Africa and West Antarctica.
While temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific region were below average, indicating a developing La Niña, Air temperatures over the ocean remained at unusually high levels across many regions.
“Even if this particular series of extremes ends at some point, we will undoubtedly see new records broken as the climate continues to warm,” said Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“This is inevitable unless we stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and oceans,” he added.
