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- The world just experienced its hottest January on record, continuing a run of exceptional heat fuelled by climate change.
- Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
- Every month since June has been the world's hottest on record, compared with the corresponding month in previous years.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
The world just experienced its hottest January on record, continuing a run of exceptional heat fuelled by climate change, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.
Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S's records going back to 1950.
The exceptional month came after 2023 ranked as the planet's hottest year in global records going back to 1850, as human-caused climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon, which warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, pushed temperatures higher.
Every month since June has been the world's hottest on record, compared with the corresponding month in previous years.
READ | 2023 the hottest on record, as temperatures near critical 1.5°C limit - climate monitor
"Not only is it the warmest January on record but we have also just experienced a 12-month period of more than 1.5 C above the pre-industrial reference period," C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said.
"Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing," she said.
US scientists have said 2024 has a one-in-three chance of being even hotter than last year, and a 99% chance of ranking in the top five warmest years.
The El Niño phenomenon began to weaken last month, and scientists have indicated it could shift to the cooler La Niña counterpart later this year. Still, average global sea surface temperatures last month were the highest for any January on record.
Countries agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent global warming surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius, to avoid it unleashing more severe and irreversible consequences.
Despite exceeding 1.5 C in a 12-month period, the world has not yet breached the Paris Agreement target, which refers to an average global temperature over decades.
Some scientists have said the goal can no longer realistically be met, but have urged governments to act faster to cut CO2 emissions to limit overshooting the target - and the deadly heat, drought and rising seas that this would inflict on people and ecosystems - as much as possible.
"We are touching 1.5 C and we see the cost, the social costs and economic costs," said Johan Rockstrom, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
"1.5 is a very big number and it hurts us really badly in terms of heat waves, droughts, floods, reinforced storms, water scarcity across the entire world. That is what 2023 has taught us."
Recent months have seen an onslaught of extremes across the planet, including devastating drought gripping the Amazon basin, sweltering winter temperatures in parts of southern Europe, deadly wildfires in South America and record rainfall in California.
"It is clearly a warning to humanity that we are moving faster than expected towards the agreed upon 1.5 C limit that we signed," Rockstrom said.
"The succession of very hot years is bad news for both nature and people who are feeling the impacts of these extreme years," Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, said.
"Unless global emissions are urgently brought down to zero, the world will soon fly past the safety limits set out in the Paris climate agreement."
Rockstrom said 2023 "is a year where ocean dynamics have simply gone berserk, it's off the charts".
Oceans cover 70% of the planet and have kept the Earth's surface liveable by absorbing 90% of the excess heat produced by the carbon pollution from human activity since the dawn of the industrial age.
Hotter oceans mean more moisture in the atmosphere, leading to increasingly erratic weather, like fierce winds and powerful rain.
