World hits record temperatures, UN warns of 'climate hell'

NDO - On World Environment Day on June 5, the EU's climate change monitoring agency said that each of the past 12 months has been ranked as the hottest in year-on-year history. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action to prevent "climate hell".

"We need an escape route from the highway to climate hell"

The average global temperature for the 12 months to the end of May was 1.63 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, the warmest since record-keeping began in 1940, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

This 12-month average does not mean the world has yet crossed the 1.5C global warming threshold, which describes the average temperature over decades, beyond which scientists warn of extreme and irreversible impacts.

In a separate report, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there is now an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will mark the first calendar year in which average temperatures temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Last year, the chance was 66%.

Speaking about the findings, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that the world is on the wrong track and cannot find a way to stabilize its climate system quickly.

We need an escape from the highway to climate hell.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres

In his speech on World Environment Day (June 5), Mr. Guterres said: "In 2015, the possibility of this phenomenon happening is almost zero."

With time running out to reverse course, the UN Secretary-General is calling for a 30% cut in global fossil fuel production and use by 2030.

“We need an escape route from the highway to climate hell,” he said, adding: “The battle to limit warming to 1.5 degrees will be won or lost in the 2020s.”

The world is 'off track' from the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius

Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels - the main cause of climate change - hit a record high last year despite global agreements designed to curb them and rapid expansion of renewable energy.

Coal, oil and gas still provide more than three-quarters of the world's energy, while global demand for oil remains high.

A water spray system to reduce high temperatures caused by a heat wave, at Gerardo Barrios Square, in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters

WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said the latest climate data showed the world was "off track" to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius - the main goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“We must urgently do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or we will pay an increasingly heavy price in economic costs of trillions of dollars, millions of lives affected by more extreme weather and severe damage to the environment and biodiversity,” Ms Barrett warned.

We must urgently do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or we will pay an increasingly heavy price...

WMO Deputy Secretary General Ko Barrett

Ms Barrett described the cooling impact of La Nina weather conditions, expected later this year, as “a mere blip on the upward curve” of global warming.

“We all need to know that we need to reverse this curve and we need to do it urgently,” she said.

UN calls for end to fossil fuel advertising

WMO data shows that while last year was the warmest calendar year on record, with temperatures 1.45C above pre-industrial levels, at least one of the next five years is likely to be warmer than 2023.

There have been some surprising developments – such as the dramatic loss of sea ice in Antarctica in recent months – but the overall climate data is consistent with predictions of how greenhouse gas emissions will warm the planet, according to scientists at Copernicus.

“We have not seen anything like this in thousands of years,” said Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Guterres has criticized fossil fuel companies as one of the causes of rising global temperatures.

“The godfather of climate chaos – the fossil fuel industry – is raking in record profits and receiving trillions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies,” he said.

Comparing it to many governments' restrictions on advertising harmful substances like tobacco, he said: "I call on every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, and I call on media and technology companies to stop advertising fossil fuels."

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