Following an alarming 11-month sequence, the previous month (April) has been recorded as the warmest April to date. For each of the last 11 months, global temperature records have been successively broken.
The European Union’s climate change service, on Wednesday (May 8), reported in its monthly review that, starting in June 2023, each month has consistently been the warmest ever recorded for that particular month, compared to historical records.
Record-setting temperatures
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), with the inclusion of April, the Earth’s mean temperature has reached an all-time high for any 12-month timeframe, sitting at 1.61 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average from 1850–1900.
The historical data collected by C3S dates back to 1940. In validating their findings, researchers also cross-referenced this data with other datasets and confirmed that the past month experienced the highest April temperatures since the pre-industrial era.
Factors driving the temperature increase
The primary driver of these rising temperatures is identified as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
Additionally, recent months have been influenced by El Niño, a natural event that heats up the surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, contributing to the increase in global temperatures.
These ongoing temperature extremes, which include unprecedented sea surface temperatures, have led some scientists to speculate whether these conditions mark a significant shift in the Earth’s climate system.
“I think many scientists have asked the question whether there could be a shift in the climate system,” stated Julien Nicolas, a Senior Climate Scientist at C3S, in a statement to AFP.
Recent research has confirmed that climate change played a role in particular extreme weather events last month, such as the Sahel heatwave, which may be linked to numerous fatalities.
Specialists are sounding the alarm that Earth is dangerously close to surpassing the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Hayley Fowler, a climate expert at Newcastle University, expressed to AFP her belief that “we have already lost the battle.”
“At what point do we declare we’ve lost the battle to keep temperatures below 1.5? My personal opinion is we’ve already lost that battle, and we really need to think very seriously about keeping below 2C and reducing our emissions as quickly as possible,” she remarked.
While technically the global average temperature has not yet surpassed the 1.5°C mark over an extended period, some experts argue that it is increasingly unlikely that this goal will be met.