
Temperatures remain above 1.5°Cthreshold after second hottest April
LondoncTypeface:>Last month was the second hottest April on record with world temperatures remaining above the key 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming, scientists have said.
April 2025 was 0.6 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the month and 1.51 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This makes it the 21st month in the last 22 months for which the global average surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
The analysis, which used billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world, also found the last 12-month period, from May 2024 to April 2025, was 1.58 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, the estimated 1850-1900 level which is used to define the pre-industrial era.
It comes despite the emergence of the 'La Nina' pattern in the Pacific which temporarily cools global temperatures. (DPA)

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Qatar Tribune
08-05-2025
- Qatar Tribune
World's richest 10% caused two thirds of global warming: Study
Agencies The world's wealthiest 10 percent of individuals are responsible for two thirds of global warming since 1990, researchers said on Wednesday. How the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heatwaves and drought, they reported in the first study to quantify the impact of concentrated private wealth on extreme climate events. 'We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts,' lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at ETH Zurich, told AFP. 'It's a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability.' Compared to the global average, for example, the richest one percent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heatwaves, and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the findings, published in Nature Climate Change. Emissions from the wealthiest 10 percent in China and the United States—which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution—each led to a two-to-threefold rise in heat extremes. Burning fossil fuels and deforestation have heated Earth's average surface by 1.3 degrees Celsius, mostly during the last 30 years. Schoengart and colleagues combined economic data and climate simulations to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their impact on specific types of climate-enhance extreme weather. The researchers also emphasized the role of emissions embedded in financial investment rather than just lifestyle and personal consumption. 'Climate action that doesn't address the outsized responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society risk missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm,' said senior author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, head of the Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna. Owners of capital, he noted, could be held accountable for climate impacts through progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments. Earlier research has shown that taxing asset-related emissions is more equitable than broad carbon taxes, which tend to burden those on lower incomes. Recent initiatives to increase taxes on the super-rich and multinationals have mostly stalled, especially since Donald Trump regained the White House. Last year, Brazil—as host of the G20 -- pushed for a two-percent tax on the net worth of individuals with more than $1 billion in assets. Although G20 leaders agreed to 'engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed,' there has been no follow-up to date. In 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed on work toward a global corporate tax for multinational companies, with nearly half endorsing a minimum rate of 15 percent, but those talks have stalled as well. Almost a third of the world's billionaires are from the United States—more than China, India and Germany combined, according to Forbes magazine. According to anti-poverty NGO Oxfam, the richest 1 percent have accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade. It says the richest one percent have more wealth than the lowest 95 percent combined.


Qatar Tribune
08-05-2025
- Qatar Tribune
Temperatures remain above 1.5°Cthreshold after second hottest April
LondoncTypeface:>Last month was the second hottest April on record with world temperatures remaining above the key 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming, scientists have said. April 2025 was 0.6 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for the month and 1.51 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This makes it the 21st month in the last 22 months for which the global average surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. The analysis, which used billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world, also found the last 12-month period, from May 2024 to April 2025, was 1.58 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, the estimated 1850-1900 level which is used to define the pre-industrial era. It comes despite the emergence of the 'La Nina' pattern in the Pacific which temporarily cools global temperatures. (DPA)


Al Jazeera
08-04-2025
- Al Jazeera
Record global temperatures in March illustrate threat to climate goals
Global temperatures hovered at historic highs last month, and Europe experienced its warmest March, suggesting international climate goals could be moving out of reach. The average temperature in March in Europe climbed to above 6 degrees Celsius (42.8 Fahrenheit), which is 0.26C (0.468F) above the previous hottest March in 2014. The average global temperature last month was 1.6C (2.88F) higher than in pre-industrial times, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Tuesday. The findings, contained in C3S's monthly report, underscore growing concerns that the international goal of limiting global warming by the year 2100 to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels is slipping out of reach. Scientists have warned that every fraction of a degree of global warming increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the C3S service, noted that Europe experienced extremes in both heavy rain and drought in March. Europe last month recorded 'many areas experiencing their driest March on record and others their wettest March on record for at least the past 47 years', Burgess said. Scientists said climate change also intensified an extreme heatwave across Central Asia and fuelled conditions for extreme rainfall in countries like Argentina. Arctic sea ice also fell to its lowest monthly extent last month for any March in the 47-year record of satellite data, C3S said. The previous three months also set record lows. The EU monitor uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its climate calculations. Its records go back to 1940. The main driver of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, according to climate scientists. But even as the costs of disasters due to climate change spiral, the political will to invest in curbing emissions has waned in some countries. United States President Donald Trump has called climate change a 'hoax', despite the global scientific consensus that it is human-caused and will have severe consequences if not addressed. In January, Trump signed an executive order to have the US withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the US from its closest allies. In 2015, nearly 200 nations agreed in Paris that limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels offered the best chance of preventing the most catastrophic repercussions of climate change. However, Trump's order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that do not reflect US values and 'steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people'. Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London told the AFP news agency that the world is 'firmly in the grip of human-caused climate change'. 'That we're still at 1.6C above pre-industrial is indeed remarkable,' she said.