Last month, the world received its first preview of what temperatures might be like with a 1.5-degree Celsius increase in global warming – a threshold that scientists have warned should be the limit for the planet to stay under. However, in recent years, we’ve been rapidly approaching this limit.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed on Tuesday that July saw the hottest average global temperature ever recorded, surpassing temperatures by approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era, which ended around the mid-1800s.
This announcement followed waves of destructive heat across several continents and unprecedented sea warmth worldwide. According to Copernicus scientists, this marks the first month where temperatures have crossed the 1.5-degree mark, offering a glimpse into future summers.
The 1.5-degree threshold is significant because scientists consider it a crucial tipping point for the planet, beyond which the impacts of excessive heat, floods, droughts, wildfires, and potential shortages of food and water would become even more detrimental to life as we know it.
This is the goal that scientists set within the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, giving society and the economy time to wean off fossil fuels to mitigate the damages of climate crisis. It’s not something that can be tracked on a daily or monthly basis. Scientists are particularly concerned that global temperatures will remain above the 1.5-degree mark for an extended period. By 2022, the world had already warmed by around 1.2 degrees Celsius.