Earth witnesses first year-long breach of crucial 1.5C warming limit

Global warming has breached the mark of 1.5C across a period of 12 months for the first time on record, making 2023 hotter than the pre-industrial era, said Europe's climate monitor on Thursday (Feb 8).

As climate change, heightened by the naturally occurring El Nino phenomenon, triggered severe storms, droughts and fire across the world, planet Earth saw record warming in the year 2023, making it the hottest in nearly 100,000 years.

The severe temperatures have continued into 2024, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) service, substantiating that February 2023 to January 2024 witnessed warming of 1.52 degrees Celsius, which was above the 19th-century benchmark.

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Scientists, dubbing this a "warning to humanity", said that the current situation was a trailer of the Paris climate deal's critical 1.5C warming threshold. However, they said that this does not indicate a permanent breach of the limit, which is measured over decades.

"We are touching 1.5C 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."

'Warning to humanity'

In recent months, Earth has endured an onslaught of severe temperatures, which include a devastating drought engulfing the Amazon basin, extreme 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 1.5C limit that we signed," Rockstrom told news agency AFP, adding that temperatures will likely fall back somewhat after the El Nino comes to an end.

Copernicus had earlier said that January this year had witnessed record-high temperatures on record. It was the eighth month in a row of historic high monthly temperatures with temperatures 1.66C warmer overall than an estimate of the January average for 1850-1900, the pre-industrial reference period.

"2024 starts with another record-breaking month -- not only is it the warmest January on record but we have also just experienced a 12-month period of more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial reference period," said Samantha Burgess, C3S Deputy Director.

(With inputs from agencies)