‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN
chief as July set to be hottest month on record
Head of World Meteorological Organization also warns
‘climate action is not a luxury but a must’ as temperatures soar
Ajit
Niranjan Europe environment correspondent
Thu 27 Jul
2023 14.31 BST
The era of
global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN
secretary general, António Guterres, has said after scientists confirmed July
was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record.
“Climate
change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” Guterres said.
“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above
pre-industrial levels], and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only
with dramatic, immediate climate action.”
Guterres’s
comments came after scientists confirmed on Thursday that the past three weeks
have been the hottest since records began and July is on track to be the hottest
month ever recorded.
Global
temperatures this month have shattered records, according to the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation
programme, stoked by the burning of fossil fuels and spurring violent weather.
The steady
rise in global average temperatures, driven by pollution that traps sunlight
and acts like a greenhouse around the Earth, has made weather extremes worse.
“Humanity
is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast
parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the
entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans
are to blame.
“All this
is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings. The only
surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying,
and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of
global boiling has arrived.”
Guterres
urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is
unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is
unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more
waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.
“It is
still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C and avoid the very
worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action. We
have seen some progress – a robust rollout of renewables and some positive
steps from sectors such as shipping – but none of this is going far enough or
fast enough. Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.”
The WMO
secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said: “The need to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a
must.”
Other
climate scientists confirmed the findings. Karsten Haustein at Leipzig
University found the world was 1.5C (2.7F) hotter in July 2023 than in the
average July before industrialisation.
Temperatures
this month had been “so outrageous” that scientists could predict it would be
the warmest on record, even before it was over, he said.
Haustein
took global temperature estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in the US and found July 2023 was likely to beat the previous
record from 2019 by 0.2C.
Zeke
Hausfather, a climate scientist at the US nonprofit Berkeley Earth, used tools
from Japanese and European meteorologists to estimate the record would be
broken by closer to 0.3C.
He said:
“Barring a major asteroid impact today, it is virtually certain that July 2023
will be the warmest month on record by a large margin. I personally find the
magnitude of this record a bit stunning. We don’t see anything analogous in the
historical record for the month of July.”
Greenhouse
gas pollution has driven up the temperatures of deadly heatwaves on three
continents this month, according to a rapid analysis from the World Weather
Attribution network published on Tuesday.
The study,
which used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed, found
humanity made the heatwaves in southern Europe, North America and China 2.5C,
2C and 1C hotter respectively.
The
scientists said the first two would have been “virtually impossible” if people
had not caused the changes to the climate.
Friederike
Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and lead author of the
study, said: “We have to live with these – and make it possible for people to
live with these – extreme conditions in summers. They are not rare. And the
later we stop burning fossil fuels, the more frequent they become.”
Scientists
expect this year to be hotter than usual because El Niño, a natural pattern of
wind and water that heats the planet, is returning after three years of its
cooler counterpart, La Niña.
That
effect, together with greenhouse gas pollution, has led the WMO to predict a
two in three chance that one of the next five years will be 1.5C hotter than
before the Industrial Revolution – the level to which world leaders promised to
try to limit global heating by the end of the century. The WMO warned this did
not mean the target would be missed as it referred to a 20-year average and not
individual months or years.
She added:
“This should serve as a compelling wake-up call for all of us. We need to shift
the conversation to what needs to happen urgently this year.”
World
leaders are meeting in the United Arab Emirates in November to agree ways to
stop the planet heating, adapt to more extreme weather and pay for the damage.
The
president of the Cop28 summit, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the head of the
country’s national oil company, said in an interview with the Guardian this
month that phasing down fossil fuels was “inevitable and essential”.
Catherine
Abreu, the founder of the Canadian campaign group Destination Zero, said
governments must understand that “this transition away from fossil fuels is not
just inevitable, it is urgent. It needs to be planned, it requires cooperation;
it requires a provision of finance at a scale that is currently not being
provided.”
In a roadmap
to net zero emissions drawn up by the International Energy Agency, there should
have been no new oil and gasfields approved for development from 2021. Instead,
governments including the US, UK and Australia have granted licences to drill
for more.
Marina
Romanello, a climate and health researcher at University College London and
head of the Lancet Countdown, said: “We have data showing how the very
foundations of health are being undermined by climate change and, despite that
knowledge, we’re seeing governments and companies still prioritising fossil
fuels.
“But we
still have time today to turn the tide and to ensure a liveable future for us
and our children.”
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