Global environmental issues

Europe's climate monitor said on April 9 that March was the hottest on record and the tenth straight month of historic heat, with sea surface temperatures also hitting a "shocking" new high.

It is the latest red flag in a year already marked by climate extremes and rising greenhouse gas emissions, spurring fresh calls for more rapid action to limit global warming.

Europe stands to suffer significant economic effects, amounting to some 7% of its output by the end of the century, even if the world manages to contain the increase of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial level, according to a draft European Commission communication seen by Bloomberg.

Earth has endured 12 months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity".

As they further state, it could threaten the lives of up to six billion people by the end of the century.
In the study "Climate State Report 2023: Entering Unexplored Territory", published in the journal Bioscience, specific climate events this year are pointed out.

A man walks in front of an installation featuring a burning Earth at a park in Daegu, 237 kilometers southeast of Seoul, South Korea. The last three days have been the warmest in modern global history, as an epic heatwave continues to break temperature records from North America to Antarctica.

Europe's summer last year was the hottest on record and caused thousands of deaths, a joint report by World Meteorological Organization and European Union scientists confirmed, while warning that such events could become more routine.

The global food system's greenhouse gas emissions will add nearly 1 degree Celsius to Earth's surface temperatures by 2100 on current trends, obliterating Paris Agreement climate goals, scientists have warned.

Drought and major food crises may be experienced worldwide if greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are not reduced, Türkiye's Special Envoy for Climate Change Mehmet Emin Binpınar has warned.

A series of "once-in-a-millennium" rainstorms have lashed the United States in recent weeks, flooding areas baked dry by long-term droughts, as human-caused climate change brings weather whiplash.

And scientists warn that global warming means once-rare events are already much more likely, upending the models they have long used to predict possible disasters, with worse to come.

China and the United States on Nov. 10 vowed to work together to accelerate climate action this decade, separately announcing a surprise pact on global warming, which is already causing disasters across the world.