June warmest month on record: Climate agency

New Delhi, July 8

With millions of people across five continents experiencing scorching heat last month, the European Union’s (EU) climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), confirmed on Monday that June was the warmest on record.

It also marked the 12th consecutive month of global temperatures reaching 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average.

According to scientists at C3S, every month since June last year has been the warmest such month on record.

In January, the world completed an entire year with the mean surface air temperature exceeding the 1.5°C threshold. June was the 12th consecutive month with monthly average temperatures above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

At the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, world leaders committed to limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial period to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. However, a permanent breach of the 1.5°C limit specified in the Paris Agreement refers to long-term warming over a 20 or 30-year period.

Earth’s global surface temperature has already increased by around 1.2°C compared to the average in 1850-1900 due to the rapidly-increasing concentration of greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide and methane — in the atmosphere. This warming is considered to be the reason behind record droughts, wildfires and floods worldwide.

According to new data, June 2024 was the warmest on record, with an average surface air temperature of 16.66°C, 0.67°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month and 0.14°C above the previous high set in June 2023.