According to new data released on Wednesday, the world experienced the warmest May ever recorded. Record heat, rain, and floods wreaked havoc in many countries.
According to the European Union's climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), it was also the 12th consecutive month of record-high temperatures, a result of the combined effect of the now weakening El Nino and human-caused climate change.
The update from Copernicus coincides with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) prediction that there is an 80 per cent chance that one of the next five years will be at least 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it was at the start of the industrial age.
The WMO also said there is an 86 per cent chance that at least one of these years will set a new temperature record, beating 2023, which is currently the warmest year.
Copernicus reported that the global average temperature for May 2024 was 1.52 degrees Celsius above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average, marking the 11th consecutive month (since July 2023) at or above 1.5 degrees Celsius.
However, a permanent breach of the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit specified in the Paris Agreement refers to long-term warming over many years.
The European Climate Agency said the global average temperature for the last 12 months (June 2023-May 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.75 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 average and 1.63 degrees Celsius above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.
According to climate scientists, countries need to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
A recent study by scientists at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research suggests that climate impacts could cost the global economy around USD 38 trillion a year by 2049. This would particularly affect countries least responsible for the problem and with minimum resources to adapt to impacts.
Globally, 2023 was the warmest year in the 174-year observational record, with the global average temperature at 1.45 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900).
It is anticipated that the warming may set a new record in 2024; as scientists say, El Nino—the periodic warming of the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean—typically has the greatest impact on global climate in its second year of development.
The world is experiencing weather extremes due to the combined effect of the 2023-24 El Nino and human-caused climate change.
During a brutal heat wave, India recorded nearly 25,000 suspected heat stroke cases and 56 deaths due to heat-related illnesses from March to May, according to a report by PTI citing data from the health ministry.
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