June 2024 was the hottest on record globally and the twelfth month in a row with temperatures 1.5°C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to data analysed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
A sustained temperature rise of this magnitude increases the risk the planet will reach what the Guardian described as “catastrophic tipping points” – including the collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic – during the 2030s.
Global warming is also scientifically linked to extreme weather events, like typhoons, droughts that lead to wildfires, and deadly heat waves.
[See more: Extreme heat is more deadly than we thought, studies show]
Scientists at Copernicus – a scientific organisation that belongs to the European Union’s space programme – acknowledged that other climate agencies might not agree with their assessment of the 12-month temperature streak, given the “relatively small margins” of some months in the data set.
However, Carlo Buontempo, the agency’s director, warned that the results were not a statistical oddity but evidence that the climate was experiencing a “large and continuing shift.”
“Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm,” he said. “This is inevitable unless we stop adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and the oceans.”
