"Time to act"

Climate records are falling at ever shorter intervals

In the past decade alone (2014 to 2023), the temperature rose by around 0.26 degrees due to human activities.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Guenter Albers, stock.adobe.com)

A year of global records for every month - and the Earth is heating up at an increasing rate: May was the twelfth month in a row in which the global average temperature reached a record high for the month in question.

According to UN estimates, there is an 80% probability that the global average annual temperature will exceed the 1.5 degree mark at times by 2028.

It should be noted that special effects such as the warming natural climate phenomenon El Niño have recently played a greater role in the record figures.

The "Indicators of Global Climate Change" (IGCC) report states that the increase is due to high greenhouse gas emissions on the one hand, while the amount of cooling aerosols in the atmosphere has decreased on the other. For example, as a result of a new regulation for cleaner marine fuels, the level of sulphate aerosols has fallen sharply.

Man-made global warming increasing faster than ever before
In the past decade alone (2014 to 2023), the temperature rose by around 0.26 degrees as a result of human activities. This is a record when recorded with measuring devices dating back to the 19th century, reports the group led by Piers Forster from the University of Leeds in the journal "Earth System Science Data". A decade earlier (2004 to 2013), it was around 0.20 degrees of warming, according to the university.

Greenhouse gases fuel climate crisis
The trend of man-made climate change will continue as long as greenhouse gases continue to be produced. The director of the EU climate change service Copernicus, Carlo Buontempo, emphasized: "Although this sequence of record months will be interrupted at some point, the general signature of climate change remains and there is no change to this trend in sight."

Global temperature reached all-time high
Compared to the period 1850 to 1900, the pre-industrial reference period, May was 1.52 degrees warmer according to the data. The average global temperature over the past twelve months - from June 2023 to May 2024 - also reached a record high: it was 1.63 degrees above the pre-industrial level.

We are breaking global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It is the time of the climate crisis.

UN-Generalsekretär António Guterres

According to the IGCC report, humans can roughly produce another 200 billion tons of CO₂ before global warming reaches 1.5 degrees on a permanent basis. This is roughly equivalent to five years of current emissions. However, the range of estimates is high, ranging from 100 to 450 billion tons.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

(Bild: AFP)

As he has done many times before, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for faster action: "We are breaking global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. This is the time of the climate crisis. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver." 

Guterres calls for special tax
He called on Wednesday for an advertising and funding boycott of industries that make profits from fossil fuels such as gas, oil and coal. He said they had blocked progress towards climate-friendly energy for decades. "Billions of dollars have been spent distorting the truth, misleading the public and sowing doubt," said Guterres. At the same time, such companies have made record profits with trillions in subsidies from taxpayers' money. He is calling for a special tax.