Global temperatures remain above 1.5°C
Globally, April 2025 is ranked the second warmest after April 2024, according to the European observatory Copernicus, which bases its data on billions of measurements from satellites, weather stations, and other tools.
Last month extends an uninterrupted series of record or near-record temperatures that has lasted since July 2023, soon approaching two years. Since then, with one exception, every month has been at least 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial era average (1850-1900). Many scientists had anticipated that the 2023-2024 period — the two hottest years ever measured globally — would be followed by a respite when the warmer conditions of the El Nino phenomenon would fade. "With 2025, it should have settled down, but instead, we remain in this phase of accelerated warming," said Johan Rockström, director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. "It seems that we are stuck here" and "what explains this is not entirely resolved, but it's a very worrying sign," he told AFP.
The past two years "have been exceptional," Samantha Burgess from the European center operating Copernicus told AFP. "They remain within the range that climate models predicted for today, but we are at the top of the range."
One explanation is that the La Nina phenomenon, the opposite of El Nino and synonymous with cooling influence, has turned out to be only "weak in intensity" since December, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and could already decline in the coming months.
Almost 1.4°C already
A group of about fifty renowned climatologists, led by Briton Piers Forster, estimate that the climate was already warmed by an average of 1.36°C in 2024. This is the conclusion of a preliminary version of their study that annually updates the key figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate experts mandated by the UN. Copernicus has a current estimate very close to that, at 1.39°C. The 1.5°C warming threshold, the most ambitious of the Paris Agreement, is on the verge of being reached in a stabilized way, calculated over several decades, many scientists estimate. Copernicus believes that this could be the case by 2029.
"That's in four years. The reality is that we are going to exceed 1.5°C," says Samantha Burgess.
"At the current pace, the 1.5°C will be surpassed before 2030," also estimates Julien Cattiaux, a climatologist at the CNRS contacted by AFP. "It is said that every tenth of a degree counts," as it multiplies droughts, heatwaves, and other weather catastrophes "but currently, they are happening fast," the scientist warns. But "now, what we must try to do, is to have global warming as close as possible" to the initial target because "it's not the same if we target a climate warmed by 2°C at the end of the century or by 4°C," he recalls.
That the burning of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — is responsible for the bulk of the warming is not debated among climatologists. But discussions and studies are multiplying to quantify the climatic influence of changes in clouds, a decrease in air pollution, or the Earth's ability to store carbon in natural sinks such as forests and oceans. Annual records of global temperatures go back to 1850. But ice cores, ocean floor sediments, and other "climate archives" establish that the current climate is unprecedented for at least 120,000 years.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
09-07-2025
- MTV Lebanon
European Heat Wave Caused 2,300 Deaths
Around 2,300 people died of heat-related causes across 12 European cities during the severe heat wave that ended last week, according to a rapid scientific analysis published on Wednesday. The study targeted the 10 days, ending July 2, during which large parts of Western Europe were hit by extreme heat, with temperatures breaching 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) in Spain and wildfires breaking out in France. Of the 2,300 people estimated to have died during this period, 1,500 deaths were linked to climate change, which made the heat wave more severe, according to the study conducted by scientists at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'Climate change has made it significantly hotter than it would have been, which in turn makes it a lot more dangerous,' said Dr Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London. The study covered 12 cities including Barcelona, Madrid, London and Milan, where the researchers said climate change had increased heatwave temperatures by up to 4 degrees Celsius. The researchers used established epidemiological models and historical mortality data to estimate the death toll, which reflects deaths where heat was the underlying reason for mortality, including if exposure exacerbated pre-existing health conditions. The scientists said they used peer-reviewed methods to quickly produce the estimated death toll, because most heat-related deaths are not officially reported and some governments do not release this data. Last month was the planet's third-hottest June on record, behind the same month in 2024 and 2023, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a monthly bulletin on Wednesday. Western Europe experienced its warmest June on record, with much of the region experiencing 'very strong heat stress' - defined by conditions that feel like a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or more, Copernicus said. 'In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe,' said Samantha Burgess, Copernicus' strategic lead for climate. Researchers from European health institutes reported in 2023 that as many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe's sweltering heatwaves in 2022, according to new research, suggesting countries' heat preparedness efforts are falling fatally short. The build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere - which mostly come from the burning of fossil fuels - means the planet's average temperature has increased over time. This increase in baseline temperatures means that when a heatwave comes, temperatures can surge to higher peaks.
Nahar Net
09-07-2025
- Nahar Net
Climate change made European heatwave up to 4C hotter
by Naharnet Newsdesk 09 July 2025, 12:01 Human-caused climate change made the recent European heatwave up to 4C hotter in many cities, scientists said on Wednesday, pushing temperatures into deadly territory for thousands of vulnerable people. Global warming "amplified this heatwave by approximately 2 to 4 degrees (Celsius) across most of the cities" studied, said Ben Clarke from Imperial College London, which led the research with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. - June was hottest on record in western Europe - Western Europe recorded its hottest ever June last month, as "extreme" temperatures blasted the region in punishing back-to-back heatwaves, the EU's Copernicus climate monitor said Wednesday. Globally, June was the third-warmest on record, continuing a blistering heat streak that saw the hottest and second-hottest Junes in 2024 and 2023 respectively, Copernicus said.
Nahar Net
25-06-2025
- Nahar Net
Young Mozambican inventor bringing the blind smart 'vision'
by Naharnet Newsdesk 25 June 2025, 17:28 When Armando Ernesto Chau straps on the futuristic smart glasses that a young Mozambican robotics student is developing in the family dining room, he has a vision of a life less confined to his modest home. Chau is the prototype tester for Joao Antonio Rego, a 24-year-old robotics and electronic engineering student driven to provide visually impaired Mozambicans with assistance that goes beyond a simple cane. Since he lost his sight 20 years ago, the 45-year-old father has not worked and rarely leaves his home in Matola, outside the capital Maputo. Rego's electronic glasses -- battery-powered devices embedded with sensors that scan for obstacles ahead and emit warning vibrations -- offer the promise of new possibilities. "It is vibrating ... it is those bushes," Chau said, demonstrating for AFP Rego's Vision Hope 0.2. "Maybe, there is a window here... yes." "Because of these obstacles, it vibrates. So I go back," he said. "It stopped. See? Then it says there is something on this side... When I turn, it is quiet." Resembling a virtual reality eye mask, this is Rego's latest prototype since he launched his Vision Hope project in 2021, winning Mozambique's Young Creative Award for technological innovation the following year. New features include a larger 120-degree range and more accurate sensors, explained Rego, a student at Eduardo Mondlane University. The battery, attached to a strap that is worn over a shoulder, is on a smart system that saves power and warns when it is running low. A GPS allows others to know the whereabouts of the user. - Inspiration - Rego is already working on improvements in his dining room workshop. "I want the next version to have sensors capable of detecting very thin obstacles like wires and threads," he told AFP. "The coating also needs to be waterproof," he said. Slim and serious, Rego was inspired to help when, years ago, he saw a visually impaired woman fall in a busy street in downtown Maputo, said his mother, Helena Inacio. "Seeing that woman on the ground disturbed him. He vowed that he would create glasses," she told AFP. She had asked: "'Glasses for what? So that blind people can see?' He said, 'No, to give direction.'" "I thought it was fantasy," Inacio said. Rego moved his lab out of his bedroom for better ventilation after a health scare led a doctor to warn about the risks of fumes from his soldering work. "I had health problems and after an X-ray, they said there were some spots on my lungs which might have been caused by chemical fumes, like tin. It was temporary, but I must always take precautions," he said. - Independence - Rego's own vision is to secure partnerships that will allow him to one day produce and distribute his glasses across his impoverished country, where nearly 2.7 million people suffer vision loss, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Chau, who lost his sight after falling ill in 2005 and undergoing treatment in hospital, has made some suggestions for the next iteration. "I told him to first improve the roadside verification system," he said. He would also like a sensor that can detect the pools of stagnant water that are common in his area. And, if possible, a way for detected obstacles to be identified. "A system that communicates... about what kind of obstacle is in front of me, if it is a human being, a car," he said. "If the glasses are made the way I suggest, it will help us a lot, me and many other visually impaired people out there," said Chau. When they are in production and he can get his own pair, the glasses will give Chau a new lease of life, said his wife, Felizarda Nhampule. "Sometimes he stays here at home alone while I go out and do my errands. Sometimes he wants to go out somewhere but can't," she said. "With the glasses, he will be able to visit his friends and get rid of the boredom of staying at home. In case of an emergency, he can go and seek help from neighbors," she told AFP, flashing a smile. "So these glasses will be a great help to him and to us as a family."
