Last month was the world’s hottest March on record, the European Union’s climate agency has announced.
It marks the tenth consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) also found air temperatures over the ocean “remained at an unusually high level” for the month.
Climate change
In 2015, the Paris Agreement – a legally binding international treaty on climate change – was signed by nearly 200 UN member states.
Leaders agreed to cut emissions to limit global average temperature increases to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
However, C3S data shows the global average temperature for the year to March 2024 reached a record-high 1.58°C above pre-industrial levels, and 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average. This made last month the world’s hottest March on record.
Heat threshold
According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks “unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.”
C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said, “stopping further warming requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”.
