BRUSSELS\/GENEVA
\nEach of the past 12 months ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, the EU\u2019s climate change monitoring service said on Wednesday, as UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called for urgent action to avert \u201cclimate hell.\u201d
\nThe average global temperature for the 12-month period to the end of May was 1.63 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average \u2014 making it the warmest such period since record-keeping began in 1940, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said.
\nThis 12-month average does not mean that the world has yet surpassed the 1.5 C (2.7 F) global warming threshold, which describes a temperature average over decades, beyond which scientists warn of more extreme and irreversible impacts.
\nIn a separate report, the UN\u2019s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there is now an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will mark the first calendar year with an average temperature that temporarily exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial levels \u2014 up from a 66 percent chance last year.
\nSpeaking about the findings, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres emphasized how quickly the world was heading in the wrong direction and away from stabilizing its climate system.
\n\u201cIn 2015, the chance of such a breach was near zero,\u201d Guterres said in a speech marking World Environment Day.
\nWith time running out to reverse course, Guterres urged a 30 percent cut in global fossil fuel production and use by 2030.
\n\u201cWe need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThe battle for 1.5 degrees will be won or lost in the 2020s.\u201d
\n\u2019WAY OFF TRACK\u2019
\nCarbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels \u2014 the main cause of climate change \u2014 hit a record high last year despite global agreements designed to curb their release and a rapid expansion in renewable energy.
\nCoal, oil and gas still provide more than three quarters of the world\u2019s energy, with global oil demand remaining strong.
\nThe latest climate data show that the world is \u201cway off track\u201d from its goal of limiting warming to 1.5 C \u2014 the key target of the world\u2019s 2015 Paris Accord, WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said.
\n\u201cWe must urgently do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or we will pay an increasingly heavy price in terms of trillions of dollars in economic costs, millions of lives affected by more extreme weather, and extensive damage to the environment and biodiversity,\u201d Barrett said.
\nBarrett described the cooling effect of La Nina weather conditions, which are expected to take hold later this year, as \u201ca mere blip in the upward curve\u201d in the heat felt across the globe.
\n\u201cWe all need to know that we need to reverse this curve and we need to do it urgently,\u201d she said.
\nWhile last year registered as the warmest calendar year on record at 1.45 C (2.61 F) above pre-industrial temperatures, at least one of the next five years is likely to be even warmer than 2023, the WMO data show.
\nScientists at Copernicus said there were some surprising developments \u2014 such as the steep loss of Antarctic sea ice in recent months \u2014 but that the overall climate data were in line with projections of how rising greenhouse gas emissions would heat the planet.
\n\u201cWe have not seen anything like this in the last several thousand years,\u201d said Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo.
\nGuterres took aim at fossil fuel companies.
\n\u201cThe Godfathers of climate chaos \u2013 the fossil fuel industry \u2013 rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies,\u201d he said.
\nDrawing a comparison with many governments\u2019 restrictions on advertising for harmful substances like tobacco, he said, \u201cI urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, and I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS\/GENEVA Each of the past 12 months ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons, the EU\u2019s climate change monitoring service said on Wednesday, as UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called for urgent action to avert \u201cclimate hell.\u201d The average global temperature for the 12-month period to the end of May was 1.63 degrees Celsius […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-411093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n