May also marked the 11th consecutive month with average temperatures at or above the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal set in the Paris climate agreement.
Last month topped off a yearlong streak of record-breaking monthly global temperatures, according to a new analysis by the European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don't seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”
The average global temperature for the past 12 months also was the highest on record, according to the service, while the World Meteorological Organization in a new report stated it’s likely that one of the next five years will be the hottest on record, surpassing 2023. The record temperatures of last year were fueled by a combination of climate change and the naturally occurring El Niño phenomenon.
“It is shocking but not surprising that we have reached this 12-month streak,” Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement. “While this sequence of record-breaking months will eventually be interrupted, the overall signature of climate change remains and there is no sign in sight of a change in such a trend.”
May also marked the 11th consecutive month with average temperatures at or above the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius delineated in the Paris climate agreement, according to the service.
“We are living in unprecedented times, but we also have unprecedented skill in monitoring the climate and this can help inform our actions,” Buontempo said. “This string of hottest months will be remembered as comparatively cold but if we manage to stabilize the concentrations of (greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere in the very near future we might be able to return to these ‘cold’ temperatures by the end of the century.”
Separately, a new report published this week found that the rate of Earth’s warming last year was at an all-time high.
Researchers also found that as the world continues using fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, Earth will likely no longer be able to avoid surpassing the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold in 4.5 years’ time. Crossing that goal doesn’t mean an end to the world, but experts say it does portend increased extreme weather events and additional loss of sea ice, as well as of animal and plant species.
The flurry of data notably comes as millions of people in the western U.S. were expected to be hit by a dangerous pre-summer heat wave this week.
