“The era of global boiling has arrived,” says UN chief as July 2023 set to be hottest month on record – “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning.”

By Ajit Niranjan
27 July 2023

(The Guardian) – The era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” Guterres said. “It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels] and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.”

Guterres’s comments came after scientists confirmed on Thursday that the past three weeks have been the hottest since records began and July is on track to be the hottest month ever recorded.

Global temperatures in July 2023 have shattered records, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, stoked by the burning of fossil fuels and spurring violent weather.

The steady rise in global average temperatures, driven by pollution that traps sunlight and acts like a greenhouse around the Earth, has made weather extremes worse.

“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame.

“All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings. The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

Guterres urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.

“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C and avoid the very worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action. We have seen some progress – a robust rollout of renewables and some positive steps from sectors such as shipping – but none of this is going far enough or fast enough. Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.”

The WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said: “The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”

Other climate scientists confirmed the findings. Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University found the world was 1.5C (2.7F) hotter in July 2023 than in the average July before industrialisation.

Temperatures this month had been “so outrageous” that scientists could predict it would be the warmest on record, even before it was over, he said.

Haustein took global temperature estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US and found July 2023 was likely to beat the previous record from 2019 by 0.2C.

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the US nonprofit Berkeley Earth, used tools from Japanese and European meteorologists to estimate the record would be broken by closer to 0.3C.

He said: “Barring a major asteroid impact today, it is virtually certain that July 2023 will be the warmest month on record by a large margin. I personally find the magnitude of this record a bit stunning. We don’t see anything analogous in the historical record for the month of July.” [more]

‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record