January temperatures were almost 1.7 °C above the pre-industrial average, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.
January surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, according to C3S data since 1950. Scientists warn that 2024 could be even warmer than 2023.
The exceptional month comes after 2023 became the hottest year on the planet in global data since 1850 as man-made climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon, which warms surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, drove up temperatures.
Each month since June has been the hottest in the world compared to the corresponding month in previous years. Copernicus Climate Change Service reported:
“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 (1.7 F) above the pre-industrial reference period. Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing.”
The El Niño phenomenon began weakening last month and scientists, opening a new tab, indicated it could transition into a colder analogue of La Niña later this year.
In 2015, countries agreed under the Paris Agreement to try to prevent global warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid more severe and irreversible effects.
Despite exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius in 12 months, the world has yet to breach the Paris Agreement’s goal of a decades-long average global temperature.
Some scientists said it was no longer realistic to reach the target, but urged governments to act faster and cut CO2 emissions to limit as much as possible the exceeding of the target – and the deadly heatwaves, drought and sea level rise it would cause to people and ecosystems.
