The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported on Thursday that the world has experienced the hottest January on record, extending a period of unusual heat brought on by climate change.
Based on C3S statistics dating back to 1950, last month’s temperature exceeded the previous hottest January, which happened in 2020.
The extraordinary month followed 2023, which was the warmest year on Earth in all of recorded history, dating back to 1850. This was due to both El Nino weather, which heats the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and human-caused climate change.
According to American experts, 2024 has a 99% likelihood of being among the top five warmest years and a one-in-three possibility of being even hotter than the previous year.
Scientists have warned that later this year, the El Nino phenomena may transition to its colder counterpart, the La Nina, after beginning to wane last month. Nevertheless, last month’s average worldwide sea surface temperatures were the highest for any January ever recorded.
In order to avert more dire and permanent effects of global warming, nations pledged in the 2015 Paris Agreement to work towards keeping it below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The globe has not yet surpassed the Paris Agreement objective, which is an average global temperature spanning decades, even though it surpassed 1.5 C in a 12-month period.
While some scientists have stated that it is no longer feasible to reach the objective, they have also encouraged governments to take immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions in order to prevent the target from being overshot and the catastrophic effects of heatwaves, droughts, and rising sea levels that would follow for both people and ecosystems.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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