2024 likely to be hottest year, last month was warmest June: EU data

The year 2024 is likely to end up as the hottest year recorded in the history of the world, and last month was the hottest June, says the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) in its monthly bulletin released on Monday.

The data reveals temperatures recorded since June last year have been going up on a year-on-year basis. In other words, every month since June 2023 has been warmer compared with the corresponding months in the previous years, since C3S started to monitor climate change for the European Union (EU) in 2014.

The bulletin adds that the past 13 months comprise the hottest recorded stretch of time, and have broken the heat wave record set in the pre-industrial era of the 1850-1900s, by around 1.64 degrees Celsius.

Scientists have suggested it is likely that 2024 would beat 2023 as the warmest year, adding that while a natural event El Nino, or warming of surface water in the Pacific Ocean, cannot be averted, it was important to reduce human-induced factors such as the burning of gas, coal and oil, and the emission of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

The negatives of climate change are already upon us, the records show. Over 100 deaths have been officially recorded this summer in Delhi, while 40,000 suffered heat strokes and other ailments related to extreme heatwave. A death toll of over 1,000 was recorded during the Haj in June 2024 owing to extreme heat. In Greece this year, at least six tourist deaths have been officially registered owing to excessive heat.

While there is a lot of conversation lately on climate change and the urgent need to avert its ills, the global community is yet to take definite steps of impact to curb of emissions and refrain from practices that increase global warming.