While the world has not yet breached the Paris Agreement target (an average global temperature over decades), it is moving ever closer to it
Representative illustration from iStock The global climate emergency has broken two more records if scientists from the European Union (EU) are to be believed. Not only has the world experienced a 12-month period where temperatures have exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C), but January 2024 has been the hottest January on record, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Global leaders meeting in the French capital during the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), had agreed to try and prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5°C.
While the world has not yet breached the Paris Agreement target (an average global temperature over decades), it is moving ever closer to it, according to media reports.
In January 2024, 2023 was also confirmed as the planet’s hottest year and the world’s warmest in the last 100,000 years, according to the EU’s climate agency.
Watch: 2023 warmest year on record
The burning of fossil fuels — which produces greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane — is largely responsible for the heat in 2023. Also, the climate phenomenon known as El Nino, the warm phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, which began in the later half of 2023, is to blame, noted the BBC.
International news agency Reuters also noted that average global sea surface temperatures in January 2024 were the highest for any January on record.
Several places globally — from the United States in the west to China in the east — recorded instances of extreme weather last year. There were heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and floods, just to name some.
Read A COP28 recap with CSE-DTE
The 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the UNFCCC was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from November 30-December 13. And while the world agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28 Dubai, besides operationalising a Loss and Damage Fund; it did not set a deadline for fossil fuel phaseout or reassure on climate finance & equity, wrote Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi and the editor of Down To Earth, Sunita Narain.
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