(CN) — The European Union’s climate service agency warned that this July is set to go down as the hottest month ever measured globally, a development that prompted the secretary-general of the United Nations to declare that “the era of global boiling has arrived.”
Globally, the first three weeks of July were the hottest three-week period on record and the month as a whole is on track to be the hottest July as well as the hottest month on record, according to a Thursday report by Copernicus, the EU’s climate change agency.
This spring, the weather pattern known as El Niño emerged in the Pacific Ocean and such cycles can last for years, typically bringing warmer temperatures and wild weather. The arrival of El Niño combined with global warming has led to this sudden spike in temperatures, scientists say.
This extremely hot July comes after Copernicus recorded the hottest June on record.
Copernicus bases its measurements on weather records that go back to 1940. It relies on a fleet of satellites and billions of readings at weather stations around the planet to monitor the effects of human-caused global warming on the planet.
António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, issued a dire alert in connection with the report
“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived,” he said at a news conference Thursday in New York City.
He sounded frustrated and even angry during the news conference over the lack of action by governments and societies to rein in carbon emissions, the chief culprit for the planet’s warming.
“All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings,” he said about rising temperatures, as reported by the Guardian. “The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning.”
The U.N. chief said governments and people needs to take action immediately to reduce carbon emissions.
“The consequences are clear and they are tragic,” he said. “Children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames. Workers collapsing in scorching heat. For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it’s a cruel summer. For the entire planet it is a disaster.”
Copernicus said the daily average global mean surface air temperature passed the last record set in August 2016 on July 6 and that July 5 and July 7 were not far behind. The world’s seas and oceans are also seeing record hot temperatures.
“Since May, the global average sea surface temperature has been well above previously observed values for the time of the year, contributing to the exceptionally warm July,” Copernicus said.
Very alarming is how global temperatures in the first and third week of July were warmer than the pre-industrial era by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
The 2015 Paris climate agreement set a rise of 1.5 C from the pre-industrial era, which started around 1850, as a global threshold in atmospheric warming deemed safe for human existence. The concern, though, is that the planet is on course to get much hotter than in the decades to come unless more drastic measures are taken to curb emissions. But efforts to stop burning fossil fuels are failing and the total load of carbon in the atmosphere continues to grow.
Scientists warn that exceeding the 1.5 C threshold for long periods will make the planet drastically and dangerously different. Under the Paris agreement, governments pledged to reduce carbon emissions in order to keep the planet’s temperature below that threshold.
“Record-breaking temperatures are part of the trend of drastic increases in global temperatures,” said Carlo Buontempo, the Copernicus director, in a statement. “Anthropogenic emissions are ultimately the main driver of these rising temperatures.”
“The number of records that we’ve exceeded in 2023 is really startling, and the rate that those records are being broken is really startling,” said Samantha Burgess, a lead scientist at Copernicus, speaking to the BBC.
The World Meteorological Organization, a U.N.-affiliated agency, predicts that there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years will be the warmest on record and a 66% chance of temporarily exceeding the 1.5 C threshold for at least one of the next five years. The WMO says that this does not mean the planet will permanently exceed the 1.5 C mark.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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