CCCS confirms last month as hottest May ever. But there is a bigger danger looming in background
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed last month as the hottest May on record, marking 12 straight months of the hottest months ever. The entity has regularly been updating the global community on the unprecedented temperature surges.
But experts are also concerned as there is a strong possibility that at least one year between 2024 – 2028 could set another temperature record, beating 2023 (the current hottest year in recorded history). There is more to the looming threat.
Need for greater efforts to meet Paris agreement goals
There is an 80% likelihood that annual average global temperature could temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – the threshold set by the 2015 Paris agreement – for at least one of the next five years. These numbers are concerning to say the least.
Under the Paris deal, countries agreed to limit long-term global average surface temperature rises under 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900 baseline) and put in efforts to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
Last year, human activities-led climate change and a strong El Nino phenomenon boosted global temperatures. El Nino is a climate pattern involving an increase in ocean surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
Need for collective action to combat climate crisis
Though experts predict the development of a La Nina phenomenon and a return to cooler conditions in the tropical Pacific in the near-term, the possibility of higher global temperatures in the next 5 years reflect the continued brutal consequences of greenhouse gases.
The need for collective action to combat the climate crisis has never been higher. Climate change has been elevating average temperatures in several countries to unprecedented levels and triggering natural disasters such as storms and floods of higher intensities.
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