World is entering ‘era of global boiling’, UN warns as July is the hottest month on record

Scientists are under no illusion about the dangers of new record-breaking levels of extreme heat. They also know who is responsible. Senior Climate Correspondent Louise Boyle reports

July is set to be the hottest month on record - and likely in 120,000 years. From left: A firefighter tackles flames in Rhodes; A man soaks himself in water in Zagreb, Croatia as it hit 40C; A bus trapped by flash flooding in Osong, South Korea. Inset, a graph showing global temperature rise (epa/AP)

The warning lights have been on for weeks but now it is official: July 2023 is set to be the hottest month on record – and possibly in 120,000 years.

The new global mean temperature – the overall reading if you could stick a thermometer at every location on Earth – was confirmed by scientists at the European Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Meteorological Organisation on Thursday. Copernicus discovered that up to 23rd July, Earth’s temperature averaged 16.95 Celsius (62.5F), giving scientists enough data to declare a record before the month ends.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on the findings.

“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

Dr Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at Leipzig University whose separate analysis was first to confirm the new record, told a press briefing on Wednesday that July 2023 was likely the warmest in 120,000 years, stretching back to the interglacial Eemian period when hardwood trees grew in the Arctic and hippos roamed as far north as the Rhine and Thames valleys.

It also follows the hottest June on record, and toppling of hottest day records multiple times earlier this month, reaching a global average of 17.08C (62.74F) on 6th July, WMO reported.

The overall mean temperature isn’t going to kill anyone but means that the planet has a “fever”, said Dr Frederike Otto, senior lecturer at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change.

The increase in global heat is manifesting in extreme weather events worldwide. Southern Europe, North Africa and Asia have faced relentless heatwaves since late spring, and in the southern United States, temperatures have regularly topped 37C for weeks.

Phoenix, Arizona had a record-breaking 19 days in a row above 43.3C this month while China set a new national temperature record of 52.2C on 16 July in Xinjiang province.

Wildfires have exploded across Greece, Italy, Croatia and Algeria. In Canada, there are now more than 1,000 wildfires – double the amount four weeks ago – which have destroyed 46,000 square miles – an area half the size of the UK.

The extreme heat is also causing intense, erratic rainfall which has led to deadly flash flooding in China, South Korea, Brazil and US Northeast.

The 2023 July record also came with a public health warning.

Global daily surface air temperature from 1 January 1940- 23 July 2023 (Copernicus/WMO)

Heatwaves are known as “silent killers” and are the deadliest of all climate-driven disasters. Extreme temperatures contributed to more than 60,000 deaths in Europe alone last year.

These deaths are most often among society’s already vulnerable groups, and an ageing global population along with growing cities – which can be much hotter than rural places – means that “heat deaths will only increase,” Dr Otto said.

Dr Marina Romanello, a climate change and health researcher at UCL, said the record heat was “rapidly undermining the foundations of health” and placing more burdens on many countries’ already over-stretched healthcare systems.

Heat-related mortality for those over 65 years old has risen by about two-thirds in the past 20 years meanwhile, wildfire exposure has increased in 60 per cent of countries.

A firefighting helicopter dumps water in Mandra, west of Athens, on 18 July 2023. Another heatwave is expected to hit Greece today (AP)

Almost a third of global land area is affected by drought annually compared to the 1950s, with the Horn of Africa and South America being particularly vulnerable. These conditions are pushing tens of millions more people into extreme hunger.

This year’s extreme heat is being amplified by the emergence of a natural climatic pattern, El Nino, which leads to hotter ocean temperatures. Since May, record sea surface temperatures have driven marine heatwaves in the Mediterranean, the UK and Ireland, the Baltic Sea, the Sea of Japan along with parts of the Pacific and western Indian Ocean.

But without a manmade climate crisis, “these heatwaves would be the statistical equivalent of impossible,” Dr Otto said.

The hottest month on record is a direct result of the burning and extraction of coal, oil and gas. We need to accelerate the clean energy transition to draw back from this runaway climate crisis.

Dr Catherine Abreu, executive director of Destination Zero

“This is not chance. These are not rare events in today’s climate.”

If El Nino intensifies, it’s possible that next summer will be even hotter.

In the first and third weeks of July, the planet shot 1.5C above the average temperature 150 years ago – before humans began burning massive amounts of fossil fuels.

It doesn’t mean that the planet will permanently exceed 1.5C – the temperature limit set by the Paris Agreement which refers to long-term warming – but shows “we are close” and that 1.5C will likely be permanently breached in the early 2030s, Dr Haustein said.

The culprit of all this extreme heat is the excessive emissions from burning fossil fuels.

“We know who is responsible,” said Dr Catherine Abreu, executive director of Destination Zero, a diplomatic initiative focused on limiting fossil fuel production.

She pointed to a few dozen major players in oil, gas and coal, along with large cement-makers, adding that the fossil fuel industry has “known for decades” about the impacts their products would have on the planet.

A person receives medical attention after collapsing in a convenience store on July 13, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona (Getty)

“The hottest month on record is a direct result of the burning and extraction of coal, oil and gas,” she added. “We need to accelerate the clean energy transition to draw back from this runaway climate crisis.”

But even as scientists sound the alarm, again, political and corporate will to tackle the global crisis is lagging.

The global fossil fuel industry more than doubled its profits to $4 trillion in 2022 but little of this money has been used to transition away from oil and gas to clean energy.

At the geopolitical level, progress is grindingly slow. Last weekend’s meeting of energy ministers from the G20 – the world’s 20 richest countries – ended with failure to reach a consensus on cutting down fossil fuels and a walk-back on commitments made in 2022.

Many governments are still prioritising, and subsidising, the oil and gas industry over healthcare, Dr Romanello said, and the global carbon price is still negative.

According to the 2022 Lancet Countdown report, led by Dr Romanello, in the majority of 86 countries creating the bulk of global emissions, the net cost of fossil fuel subsidies is $400bn. For one-third of these countries, their losses exceed what they spent on healthcare.

The new July record raises the prospect that 2023 could be the hottest year in human history, a record that is unlikely to hold for long.

“The extreme weather which has affected many millions of people in July is unfortunately the harsh reality of climate change and a foretaste of the future,” said WMO’s Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.

“The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”

This article has been updated