NEW DELHI: The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on Monday said November 17 was the first day when the average global temperature exceeded 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial level (1850-1900) average -- the upper limit set under the Paris Agreement goal to keep the temperature rise within the threshold this century.
Referring to the European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service, it noted that the temperature on that day was at 2.07 degree C above 1850-1900 average. It also underlined that the provisional value for November 18 was 2.06 degrees C.
The WMO, however, clarified that the temperature rise on that day does not mean that the world has breached the Paris Agreement levels, which refers to averages covering 20 or more years rather than individual days, months or years.
Image source: WMO
"But it sends a warning to COP28 (upcoming UN climate conference) about the urgency of climate action," said the WMO in its post on micro-blogging site X.
Earlier reports have shown that 86 days were recorded with temperatures over 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial levels (safe warming limit under the Paris Agreement) until the beginning of October this year while September was the hottest recorded month ever, with global average temperatures 1.8 degree C above pre-industrial levels.
Five consecutive months this year - June, July, August, September and October - were all the hottest on record, indicating that the year 2023 is most likely to be the warmest year on record.
Quoting findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US government, the WMO had last week said that there was a more than 99% chance that 2023 will globally be the warmest year on record.
The Organisation will finally confirm this in its provisional State of the Global Climate 2023 report, which will be released on November 30 - the opening day of the 28th session of the UN Climate Change conference (COP28) - in Dubai. It had posted the NOAA’s findings on micro-blogging site ‘X’ last Wednesday.
Vishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on...
Read MoreVishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on environment, climate change, agriculture, water resources and clean energy, tracking policy issues and climate diplomacy. He has been covering Parliament since 2003 to see how politics shaped up domestic policy and India’s position at global platform. Before switching over to explore sustainable development issues, Vishwa had covered internal security and investigative agencies for more than a decade.
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