The European Union’s climate monitoring office said that June’s average worldwide temperatures were “substantially” higher than prior records. On Thursday, Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), stated the world had its hottest early June ever. The Copernicus unit said that “Global-mean surface air temperatures for the first days of June 2023 were the highest in the ERA5 data record for early June by a substantial margin,” citing data from 1950. The brief increase in early June set a new worldwide heat record for the month and portends further extremes as the globe enters an El Niño phase that might last years.
For the first time, global surface air temperatures rose 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) beyond pre-industrial levels in June, according to EU Copernicus researchers. At a 2015 Paris conference, states pledged to keep under that limit. The worldwide average temperature was above 1.5 Celsius from June 7-11, peaking at 1.69 Celsius on June 9. On June 8 and 9, the worldwide average daily temperature was 0.4 Celsius higher than prior records. The agency warned that when the global-mean temperature rises and more regularly exceeds the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, the cumulative consequences would become increasingly dangerous and must be closely monitored. After a three-year La Niña phase, which dampens global warming, an El Niño period might raise average temperatures by another half-degree or more. Copernicus reported that worldwide waters were warmer than ever in May. Burgess expects 2024 to be warmer than 2023 as El Niño develops. “We also know that the warmer the global climate is, the more likely we are to have extreme events and the more severe they may be,” she added. Extreme occurrences are directly related to global warming. On Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the global response to climate change is tragically insufficient.
Guterres said current climate policies will raise average temperatures 2.8 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times by the end of the century, roughly double the UN goal of 1.5 degrees. That’s disaster. “The collective response remains pitiful,” Guterres said. “We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open, with far too many willing to bet everything on wishful thinking, unproven technologies, and silver bullet solutions. “Wake up and act,” declared the UN leader. He said the fossil fuel sector must undergo a complete transformation to clean energy “and away from a product incompatible with human survival”. “Countries are way behind on climate promises. No ambition. A distrust. No support. Cooperation failure. And many credibility and clarity issues,” he said.
