The EU observers' report comes as NASA launches a climate satellite to study the oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.
For the first time on record, global warming has exceeded temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over a 12-month period, European climate observers said, in what scientists called a “warning warning.” The humanity”.
The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported an exceptionally hot streak on Thursday, measuring temperatures between February 2023 and January 2024 to record the highest 12-month global temperature average on record.
Storms, droughts and fires hit the planet as climate change, as well as the El Niño climate phenomenon warming surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, made 2023 the hottest year on the planet according to global records dating back to 1850.
The extremes have continued through 2024, C3S said, confirming annual warming of 1.52°C above the 19th century baseline.
However, scientists said the world has not yet permanently surpassed the crucial 1.5°C warming threshold set in the Paris climate agreement, which is measured over decades.
In 2015, nearly 200 governments signed the unprecedented Paris climate agreement to phase out fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy in the second half of the century. Last year, the United Nations said the world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of that agreement, including limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
Some scientists have said the Paris Agreement target can no longer realistically be met, but are still urging governments to act faster to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and limit overshooting the target.
'The hottest January'
The world also experienced the hottest January on record, continuing a streak of exceptional heat fueled by climate change, C3S said.
Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S records dating back to 1950.
“Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to stop the rise in global temperatures,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess.
NASA's climate satellite
On Thursday, the US space agency NASA launched its newest satellite to study the world's oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail.
SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948 million mission, which will spend at least three years scanning the world daily from 420 miles (676 kilometers) high. PACE (short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) is the most advanced mission ever launched to study ocean biology.
“It will be an unprecedented view of our planet,” said project scientist Jeremy Werdell.
According to Werdell, current Earth observation satellites can see in seven or eight colors. Pace will be seen in 200 colors that will allow scientists to identify the types of algae in the sea and the types of particles in the air. Scientists hope to start obtaining data in a month or two.
The project aims to help scientists improve hurricane and other severe weather forecasts, detail Earth's changes as temperatures rise, and better predict the emergence of harmful algae.
