Early June broke global surface air temperature records for the period, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Average global temperatures at the start of June were the warmest on record for the period, beating previous records by “substantial margin,” the European Union’s climate monitoring unit said.
“The world just experienced its warmest early June on record,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said in a statement Thursday.
“Global average surface temperatures for the first days of June 2023 were the highest in the ERA5 data record for early June by a significant margin,” the Copernicus unit said, noting that some data goes back to 1950.
Temperatures have since dropped, but experts say the brief spike in early June marked a new global heat record for the month and points to more extremes ahead as the planet enters an El Niño phase that could last for years.
Researchers from the EU’s Copernicus unit reported that global surface air temperatures rose 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels for the first time in early June.
That’s the threshold governments said at a Paris summit in 2015 they would try to stay within.
According to the data, the daily global average temperature was at or above the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius between June 7 and June 11, reaching a maximum of 1.69 degrees above that on June 9.
The unit said that on June 8 and 9 this year, the average daily temperature worldwide was about 0.4 degrees Celsius warmer than previous records for the same days.
“As global average temperatures continue to rise and exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit more frequently, the cumulative effects of the exceedances will become increasingly severe and need to be carefully monitored,” the unit said.
The days spent at the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold come as a three-year La Niña phase – which tends to dampen the effects of global warming – has given way to its opposite, an El Niño period, which is still could add half a degree or more to average temperatures.
Copernicus recently announced that global oceans were warmer last month than any other recorded May.
“2024 is expected to be even warmer than 2023 as this El Niño continues to develop,” Burgess said.
“We also know that the warmer the global climate is, the more likely we are to experience extreme events and the more severe those extreme events can be,” she said.
“So there is a direct correlation between the rate of global warming and the frequency and intensity of extreme events.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the world is heading for a climate change disaster, describing the global response as woefully inadequate.
Current climate policies will lead to average temperatures 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times by the end of the century, nearly twice the UN target of a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase, Guterres said.
“That means a catastrophe. Yet the collective response remains appalling,” Guterres told a news conference.
#ClimateAction is undermined.
There is a lack of ambition.
A lack of confidence.
A lack of support.
A lack of cooperation.
And a plethora of issues around clarity and credibility.
It’s time to wake up and get up. pic.twitter.com/OWaklAoilc
— Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) June 15, 2023
“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open – far too willing to bet everything on wishful thinking, unproven technologies and panacea solutions. It is time to wake up and step forward,” the UN chief said.
He said the fossil fuel industry needs not just a transition, but a complete transformation as it moves towards clean energy “and away from a product that is incompatible with human survival”.
“Countries are lagging far behind in meeting climate pledges and commitments. I see a lack of ambition. A lack of confidence. A lack of support. A lack of cooperation. And a plethora of clarity and credibility issues,” he said.