Current:Home > NewsHottest January on record pushes 12-month global average temps over 1.5 degree threshold for first time ever -TradeBridge
Hottest January on record pushes 12-month global average temps over 1.5 degree threshold for first time ever
View
Date:2025-04-26 07:19:57
The world just had its hottest year ever recorded, and 2024 has already set a new heat record for the warmest January ever observed, according to the European Union's climate change monitoring service Copernicus.
The service said that January 2024 had a global average air temperature of 13.14 degrees Celsius, or 55.65 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature was 0.70 degrees Celsius above the 1991 to 2020 average for the month and 0.12 degrees Celsius above the last warmest January, in 2020.
It was also 1.66 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month.
"2024 starts with another record-breaking month," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a news release announcing the findings. "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."
The news from Copernicus comes just weeks after the agency confirmed that 2023 shattered global heat records. Those record temperatures were linked to deadly heat, droughts and wildfires that devastated countries around the world. The rise in global temperatures is fuelling the extreme weather, helping feed storms that spawn hurricanes and bring massive precipitation events that flood developed areas.
"This far exceeds anything that is acceptable," Bob Watson, a former chair of the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, told CBS News partner network BBC News.
"Look what's happened this year with only 1.5 degrees Celsius: We've seen floods, we've seen droughts, we've seen heatwaves and wildfires all over the world, and we're starting to see less agricultural productivity and some problems with water quality and quantity," Watson said.
A landmark U.N. report published in 2018 said the risks of extreme consequences of climate change would be much higher if global warming exceeded the 1.5 degree threshold. Most of the warming stems from the build-up of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, largely emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil.
While the news is a dire warning about the state of the planet, scientists said it would take multiple years of surpassing the 1.5-degree mark for the world to officially be considered in the new era of climate change associated with the threshold.
"This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5C level specified in the Paris Agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years," World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said last year. "However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency."
In December, climate negotiators from around the world agreed at COP28 that countries must transition away from fossil fuels. The deal aims to usher in that transition in a manner that achieves net zero greenhouse gas emissions over the next 26 years, in part by calling for the expanded use of renewable energy.
The plan, however, "includes cavernous loopholes that allow the United States and other fossil fuel producing countries to keep going on their expansion of fossil fuels," Center for Biological Diversity energy justice director Jean Su told The Associated Press in December. "That's a pretty deadly, fatal flaw in the text."
Upon the news that January had marked yet another heat record, Burgess, with the EU's Copernicus service, reiterated the call for limiting the use of fossil fuels, saying it's essential to limit the rapid warming the world is experiencing.
"Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing," she said.
- In:
- Climate Change
- European Union
- Oil and Gas
- Clean Energy
- Fossil
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
veryGood! (37)
Related
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- 100 hilarious Thanksgiving jokes your family and friends will gobble up this year
- Masks are back, construction banned and schools shut as toxic air engulfs New Delhi
- Toyota, Ford, and Jeep among 2.1 million vehicles recalled: Check car recalls here
- Intellectuals vs. The Internet
- Hundreds of thousands still in the dark three days after violent storm rakes Brazil’s biggest city
- Abigail Breslin Mourns Death of My Sister’s Keeper Costar Evan Ellingson
- Matthew Perry Got Chandler’s Cheating Storyline Removed From Friends
- Israel lets Palestinians go back to northern Gaza for first time in over a year as cease
- With electric vehicle sales growth slowing, Stellantis Ram brand has an answer: An onboard charger
Ranking
- All That You Wanted to Know About She’s All That
- Don't Be a Cotton-Headed Ninnymuggins: Check Out 20 Secrets About Elf
- New Edition announces 2024 Las Vegas residency, teases new music: 'It makes sense'
- 2 killed in LA after gun thrown out of window leads to police chase
- Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
- A fire at the Canadian High Commission in Nigeria has killed 2 workers repairing generators
- Likely human skull found in Halloween section of Florida thrift store
- Illinois lawmakers scrutinize private school scholarships without test-result data
Recommendation
Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
Priscilla Presley Shares Why She Never Remarried After Elvis Presley's Death
'Tiger King' star pleads guilty to conspiring to money laundering, breaking federal law
A year after 2022 elections, former House Jan. 6 panel members warn of Trump and 2024 danger
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
Prince William cheers on 15 finalists of Earthshot Prize ahead of awards ceremony
Oldest black hole discovered dating back to 470 million years after the Big Bang
Was Milton Friedman Really 'The Last Conservative?'