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Monthly temperature records have been broken every month for the past year globally. The global temperature was on average 1.63°C higher than between 1850 and 1900.
“It’s shocking, but not surprising.” The month of May 2024 was marked by a new monthly heat record on a global scale, according to the latest report from the European Copernicus observatory published on Wednesday June 5. It thus becomes the twelfth consecutive month to display a record average temperature, with 1.52°C higher than a normal month of May in the climate of the pre-industrial era (1850-1900).
More generally, the global average temperature over the last twelve months is the highest ever recorded, at 1.63°C above the pre-industrial average. It thus exceeds the limit of 1.5°C set by the Paris agreement in 2015. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening”warns Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, cited by Copernicus. “We are breaking global temperature records and harvesting the storm. The time for the climate crisis has come. It is time to mobilize, act and achieve results.”
This increase in temperatures comes from the combined effect of the natural El Niño phenomenon and global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, mainly linked to the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). “Even though this streak of record months will eventually end, climate change is here and there is no sign of a change in this trend in sight.”underlines Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
El Niño is coming to an end and must give way to La Niña, the opposite phenomenon, “later this year“, estimated the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on its website. La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. But the organization insists: “The end of El Niño does not mean a pause in long-term climate change, as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Exceptionally high sea surface temperatures will continue to play an important role over the coming months.”
Since the 19th century, the Earth’s average temperature has warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase was due to human activities, which consume fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This warming, unprecedented in its speed, threatens the future of our societies and biodiversity. But solutions – renewable energies, sobriety, reduced meat consumption – exist. Discover our answers to your questions about the climate crisis.